November 20 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's competition regulator said on Tuesday that it has annulled a decision by Sofia municipality to award a contract for operation of a public transport line connecting the capital with the town of Godech to local company Boreks Trans, after wrongly disqualifying one of the other participants in the tender.
ET Mario-Penka Todorova was wrongly disqualified from the public procurement procedure for awarding the contract, as although its offer was more than 20% lower than the average value of the remaining bids, the company fulfilled its legal obligation to provide a detailed justification of its pricing model, the Commission for Protection of Competition said in its decision.
The municipality failed to consider the provided justification in detail, the regulator concluded.
ET Mario-Penka Todorova's bid was priced at 2.5 levs ($1.46/1.28 euro) excluding VAT per passenger, while Boreks Trans won the contract with a price of 2.92 levs excluding VAT per passenger.
Sofia municipality now has to re-evaluate the offers it received before issuing a new decision on which company won the public procurement procedure.
The regulator's decision can be appealed before the Supreme Administrative Court within a 14-day period after receiving notification.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)