Brussels, 16/06/2009 (Agence Europe) - European Ombudsman Nikiforos Diamandouros has criticised the European Commission for unfairly excluding an Italian company from a €4 million tender.
In 2005, the Italian company SO.GI.N applied for an EU project concerning the harmonisation of energy policies between the EU and Russia. The company led a consortium, comprising Italian, French, Spanish and British firms. The maximum budget available for this project was €4 million. The Commission received 21 offers, but only two, one of which was the complainant's offer, complied with the technical requirements. The evaluation committee, however, excluded the Italian company's bid. In the Commission's view, the bid exceeded the maximum allowable budget of €4 million.
According to the complainant, its bid did not exceed the maximum allowable budget. It pointed out that the evaluation committee wrongly understood the bid to contain arithmetical errors. It then, without consulting the complainant, proceeded to recalculate the bid. These recalculations led the evaluation committee to conclude that the bid exceeded the maximum allowable budget by €21. The Commission then automatically awarded the tender to the only remaining other applicant, a French company. This was done even before the Italian company was informed that its bid had been rejected.
During his investigation, the Ombudsman took the view that there were no arithmetical errors in the complainant's bid. He noted that the misunderstanding of the evaluation committee could have been avoided if it had sought clarifications from the complainant. No such clarifications were sought, however. This failure led to the unfair exclusion of the bid. The Ombudsman recommended that the Commission compensate the complainant for the loss of opportunity it had suffered. The Commission rejected the amicable solution proposal. According to the Ombudsman, the failure to seek clarifications from the complainant constituted an instance of maladministration. He closed the case with a critical remark.
“I regret that the Commission did not accept my proposal to rectify the serious instances of maladministration in this case. A fair treatment of applicants for EU projects is key to ensuring that EU tenders are conducted according to the highest standards. The net effect of the Commission's behaviour is to leave the complainant with no other option but to take the matter to court,” the Ombudsman said in a press release.
The full text if the Ombudsman's decision is to be found at:
http: //http://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/cases/decision.faces/en/4050/html.bookmark (O.J./transl.rt)