RIGA - A Riga city court has barred the Riga City Council, its municipal public transport company Tramvaju un Trolejbusu Parvalde and the Hungarian company Ganz Transelektro from implementing a contract closed late last year to supply 100 new trolleybuses to the Latvian capital.
The court imposed the injunction after the well-known Czech company Skoda Ostrov filed a petition to have the deal between the Hungarian company and TTP nullified.
Skoda Ostrov and Ganz Transelektro both took part in the tender for supplying 100 trolleybuses to TTP, with the tender commission eventually choosing the Hungarian company.
Skoda, however, asked the Riga City Vidzeme District Court to annul the procurement contract on the basis that Ganz was ineligible due to its dire financial situation and hefty tax debts.
The Czech company is also seeking an annulment of the decision by the Latvian State Procurement Supervision Office, which rejected Skoda's complaint about the tender and permitted TTP to sign the final supply agreement with Ganz.
TTP acting director Romualds Armans said he was surprised by Skoda's action since the Czech company had offered a higher price than Ganz and the public procurement office had rejected Skoda's complaint about the outcome of the tender.
"If their claim filed with the court is based on the same arguments as previously, I do not understand them," said Armans.
TTP and Ganz signed an agreement to supply about 100 trolleybuses to Riga in December, with delivery to be made in the second half of 2004.
The agreement is worth 40.1 million euros.
TTP runs over 300 trolleybuses in the Latvian capital, most of which are made by Skoda, though some are from Belarus, Poland and Hungary. Many experts say that most of TTP's trolleybuses are "living their last days" and that replenishing the aging fleet is a pressing matter for the growing metropolis.
A similar tender for trolleybuses in 2002 ended in failure after TTP chose Ganz Transelektro Traction Electrics as the winner and Skoda representative Viko complained to the Latvian public procurement office. Upon scrutiny of all three bids (the third was from Belarus' Belkommunmash), all were rejected and the tender was annulled.
