“Axioma servisas”, which lost the VŠT competition, seeks to oust the winner “Bitė Lietuva” | Business
Last week, the Vilnius District Court rejected the request of “Axioma Serviso” to recognize the winning of the tender and cancel the contract signed by VŠT with the winning company “Bitė Lietuva”.
“The decision regarding the order of the bids and the winner is legal and reasonable,” states the ruling passed by the court on August 4.
According to her, “Axioma servisas” offered services for 288 thousand. EUR (with VAT), and “Bitė Lietuva” – for 432 thousand. EUR (with VAT). On April 22, a contract of such value was signed with her.
Among other things, the circumstances of measuring the strength of connections during the tests, the assessment of the economic usefulness of the proposals and the validity of the awarded points are questionable – the tale “Axioma serviso”, applying a special formula, was incorrectly rounded by the VŠT, thus reducing the opportunities of one participant, the ruling states.
The claimant is also concerned about the requirement to provide a license connection – this criterion is significant in evaluating the offer, although it is more expensive than the unlicensed one that uses the “Axioma service” – according to her, such a much cheaper one is enough to provide this service.
The decision of the Vilnius District Court will be appealed, and “Axioma servisas” should have won the tender, says the company’s lawyer.
“We do not agree with the court’s decision, we will appeal. “Axioma service” should undoubtedly have been recognized as the winner of the purchase. He is a capable supplier to provide services and, most importantly, he offers the lowest price, so the public interest of securing the signing of the contract is what we are aiming for,” Justina Litvinė, assistant attorney representing Axioma servis, told BNS.
Vilniaus šilumos tinklai told BNS that it announced the winner of the contract correctly and legally.
At that time, the Public Procurement Service indicated in its conclusion that it does not agree with the tender evaluation scores and their rounding methodology applied by the VŠT, which makes it possible to patronize a specific provider.
“In the service’s assessment, such a position enables the purchasing entity to choose a rounding option in each case that could be more beneficial for a specific supplier. Otherwise, in accordance with the position indicated by VŠT, the result of the evaluation of economic utility is not characterized by objectivity and may lead to the unauthorized patronage of a specific supplier,” the service’s conclusion reads.
VŠT’s tender for remote data reading was announced last May, the services would be provided for 12 years, if it is intended to be purchased on demand, 2.88 million was provided for this. euros (including VAT).
Axioma servisas tried to terminate the tender last year – in the company’s opinion, its conditions were illegal, but at the end of 2021, the Lithuanian Court of Appeal finally rejected its request.