Review panel dismisses complaint over Tallinn Hospital design tender

TALLINN – The public procurement review committee on Friday dismissed an application by Estonian joint tenderers Sirkel & Mall OU and OU Keskkonnaprojekt challenging the outcome of the tender for the contract to prepare the design of Tallinn Hospital.

The third international public procurement for the design of Tallinn Hospital was announced on June 30 this year and the deadline for submissions was Aug. 4. On Sept. 6, a tender by Italian joint tenderers ATIproject srl and 3TI Progetti with a price tag of 17.8 million euros was declared successful as the most economically advantageous. 

The tender received the most points according to the evaluation criteria -- 78.46.

On Sept. 16, Sirkel & Mall and Keskkonnaprojekt lodged an appeal requesting the annulment of the decisions to declare the tender of ATIproject srl and 3TI Progetti suitable and successful and on the payment of a participation fee.

The parties that challenged the decision considered that the contracting authority had given unduly low points to their tender. They also considered that the successful tender should have been rejected because it was not possible to perform the contract in the intended volume for the value of the tender. 

According to the appellants, a tender which was significantly lower than the estimated value of the public procurement and in comparison with other tenderers should have raised doubts in the contracting authority.

According to the contracting authority, the appellants' arguments that the contract cannot be performed for the given price are unfounded and unsubstantiated. In the opinion of the contracting authority, the tenderer who has designed several hospitals in different member states of the European Union and elsewhere has undeniable experience in preparing cost accounting information. 

The public procurement review committee examined the application of the evaluation criterion in the evaluation of the appellants' tender and did not find any irregularities on the part of the contracting authority. Therefore, the decisions on the payment of the participation fee are in accordance with the rules of payment and there are no grounds for their annulment.

The committee also explained that the annulment of the decisions taken in respect of a third party would not lead to the award of the contract to the appellant, since the appellant's tender finished in third place in the evaluation.

According to the committee, the appellant cannot have an interest in the annulment of the successful tender as it would not benefit from such decision itself.

Therefore, the committee decided to dismiss the appeal and to order Sirkel & Mall OU and OU Keskkonnaprojekt to pay the costs of the contractual representative of the joint tenderers  ATIproject srl and 3TI Progetti in the amount of 4,900 euros.

The decision of the dispute review committee can be appealed within 10 days of the date it is  announced.

Construction of the hospital building next to the Song Festival Grounds in Tallinn is due to begin in February 2024. The estimated total cost of Tallinn Hospital is 520 million euros, of which the projected costs of planning, design and construction works total 450 million euros and investments in equipment 70 million euros.

The state is hoping to fund the hospital with resources from the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility. All funds from the facility must be covered with agreements by the end of 2023 and used by August 2026.