Škoda Transtech is in the running for the award of a contract to purchase 63 LRVs to Stadler earlier this month.
ŠKODA previously supplied Artic LRVs to Helsinki.
ŠKODA Transtech has filed a formal complaint with the Finnish Market Court in response to the decision taken earlier this month by the Helsinki Metropolitan Area Transport Company (PKO) to award a contract to Stadler to supply 63 LRVs.
Skoda says it believes the decision to exclude it from the tender is “discriminatory and violates the principles of fair and transparent competition.” It claims that Stadler Polska was selected as the preferred bidder “without any evaluation or comparison of other offers”, and argues that its offer was fully compatible with the tender requirements and fell within the allocated budget.
Stadler confirmed on October 7 that it had been awarded a contract for 30 one-way and 33 two-way LRVs as well as a 30-year maintenance agreement. The contract also includes options for up to 120 additional vehicles. While Stadler did not disclose the value of the agreement, the value of the contract was estimated at 1.6 billion euros when the tender was launched in October 2023.
In response to the announcement, Skoda issued a statement saying it was analyzing the outcome of the action. In a detailed response issued on October 21, Skoda said the product it offered was based on verified Finnish technology supplied by local companies, while refuting the three main reasons given by PKO for its exclusion from the tender:
- Alleged unreliability of Skoda Transtec due to delays in relation to previous contracts. ŠKODA says that the delays do not satisfy legal grounds for exclusion from the tender and that these delays have been duly remedied in the past by ŠKODA TRANSTEK. He adds that the alleged unreliability was not raised during any of the negotiation stages and this does not comply with Finnish public procurement law
- Allegations of undue influence over the tender process. Skoda says that PKO viewed statements made by Skoda Transtec representatives to the media during the tender process as undue influence, although it says they only stated “publicly known facts”, and
- Alleged non-compliance with technical requirements. During the tender process, ŠKODA TRANSTECH confirmed that its offer was “fully compliant” with all mandatory technical requirements, clarifying at PKO’s request that any discrepancies would be minor errors arising from the tender documents. Skoda says this clarification was not taken into account.
“It is clear that the superficial exclusion terms were manufactured as a means of excluding ŠKODA Transtek from the process and perhaps to avoid proper evaluation and comparison of all tender offers,” says Skoda. “This was likely to show that Skoda Transtec’s offer was more suitable.
“The decision to purchase is conditional on the approval of the Helsinki and Vantaa City Councils to increase the budget allocated to this tender. This fact indicates that the price offered by Stadler Polska is higher than the budget allocated in the tender and is therefore higher than the price offered by Skoda Transtec. This will become clearer if an evaluation and comparison of the offers is carried out on the basis of all relevant evaluation criteria such as operating life cycle costs Tram.”
“We strongly believe that every bid should be truly competitive – allowing the customer to compare key factors such as price, life cycle costs, overall value of the bid and ability to deliver on time,” says Peter Novotny, CEO of ŠKODA Group. “The decision to exclude a single bid at the end of a two-year tender procedure, without having the opportunity to be evaluated, does not meet the basic principles of equality and fairness and completely distorts competition.
“Our Finnish company, Škoda Transtec, has a long and proud history of developing and manufacturing trams in Finland, and we remain committed to contributing to sustainable public transport in the Nordic region,” says Novotny.
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