Construction of Liepaja Prison to cost no more than EUR 175 million

RIGA - The government on Tuesday approved distribution of the funding allocated for construction of Liepaja Prison over a period of four years.

According to the government's decision, the total funding for construction of Liepaja Prison in 2022-2026 will not exceed EUR 175,643,319.

Construction of the prison is projected to cost EUR 20.7 million next year, EUR 75.3 million in 2024, EUR 39.6 million in 2025, and EUR 29 million in 2026.

As reported, the procurement commission has recognized SIA Citrus Solutions as the winner in the tender procedure for the construction of the new Liepaja Prison complex, LETA was informed by the Ministry of Justice.

The final procurement offers submitted by the applicants show that Citrus Solutions offered to perform the works included in the procurement for a total of 128,845,529 euros without value added tax (VAT), while joint-stock UPB offers for 141,488,743.90 euros without VAT.

After evaluating both received bids from the applicants, the procurement commission made sure that the final bids met the requirements specified in the procurement documentation. The procurement commission has checked and corrected the arithmetical errors found in the applicants' offers, as well as concluded that the applicants' offers are not unreasonably cheap, which could threaten or make it difficult to fulfill the contractual obligations.

Therefore, on September 26, the procurement commission made a decision on awarding the procurement contract to Citrus Solutions with the contract amount of 125,812,571 euros, excluding VAT, with the construction of the new prison to be carried out within 34 months after signing the contract.

LETA also reported, the design and build method will be employed in construction of Liepaja Prison, where the construction design, supervision and construction works was combined in one procurement.

So far, the area where Liepaja Prison will be built has been cleared of trees and other work has been done to prepare the construction site.

At present, there are nine prisons in Latvia, of which six have been built more than 18 years ago, and none of the buildings were originally constructed as prisons but were later adapted for these purposes. The prison buildings and their infrastructure have become outdated and dilapidated.

The new Liepaja Prison will introduce a new penitentiary system to improve the process of inmates' resocialization.

According to Firmas.lv, Citrus Solutions was established in 2005, the company's share capital is EUR 5,070,999. The company posted EUR 23.7 million in turnover and approximately EUR 1 million in profit. Citrus Solutions is part of Tet Group.