May 21 (SeeNews) - Italy's Fincantieri has challenged before court Bulgaria's decision to name Germany's Lursen Werft as winner of a 984 million levs ($550.6 million/503.1 million euro) tender for supply of two multi-functional modular Navy patrol ships, local media reported.
The decision to select Lursen Werft as winner of the tender has already received green light by the government and was due to be sent to parliament for approval, but the procedure was suspended due to the court case, business news daily Capital.bg reported on Wednesday.
At the first hearing, the Supreme Administrative Court requested from the government to present certain missing documents related to the tender before the case moves forward, according to Capital.bg.
The tender for the contract attracted offers from Lurssen Werft, Fincantieri and Bulgaria's MTG Dolphin.
The two new patrol ships will replace old Russian-made vessels which can no longer be repaired or modernised.
The tender was initially launched in 2017, and Varna-based MTG Dolphin was selected in November of that year to sign a contract. In December 2017, however, MTG Dolphin withdrew from the negotiations with the government due to a cut in the maximum financing allocated to the project.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)