November 14 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's anti-trust authority said it has dismissed the complaint of fuel retailer Petrol [BUL:5PET] over the finance ministry's decision to cancel a tender for a 100 million levs ($57.6 million/51.1 million euro) two-year fuel supply framework agreement.
The finance ministry's decision is justified, because there is an obvious fault in the template for electronic submission of offers, the Commission for Protection of Competition said in its ruling published on Monday.
The ministry discovered the problem after receiving a complaint from one of the candidates - Shell Bulgaria, which claimed that it entered a discount of 4% and a final price of 96 levs, which was visualised by the system as a discount of 0.04% and a final price of 99.96 levs.
The tender was cancelled on September 12.
In its complaint, Petrol claims that, although there is a fault in the template, candidates can see their final offer before they submit it and adjust it accordingly. Thus, according to Petrol, Shell Bulgaria should be disqualified for not meeting the minimum requirement of a 3% discount, and the tender should proceed.
The tender attracted offers from three companies - Shell Bulgaria, Petrol and Lukoil Bulgaria. The offers of Petrol and Lukoil Bulgaria were both priced at 97 levs.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)
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