The Riga City Council has been delaying for several months the signing of contracts with companies that, in a lottery held in the spring, obtained the right to provide meals to children in 25 Riga schools. Meanwhile, the previous caterers, who were less successful in the 53‑million‑euro lottery, are refusing to vacate the premises of school canteens, the winning companies report.
There are three weeks left until the start of the school year and the first food portions – the companies that won the Riga City Council procurement back in May should be fitting out their kitchens, arranging staff training, carrying out inspections, i.e. preparing for the start of the school year and the flow of pupils, but all this is becoming increasingly impossible because the contracting authority – the Riga City Council – still has not signed the contracts. As a result, there is a risk that in 25 Riga schools meal services for children will not be provided.
The winning bidders in their open letter point to possible corruption and a desire at any cost to keep the previous caterers – SIA Fristar, SIA Baltics Restaurants Latvia and SIA Žaks‑2 – in the canteens. These mutually directly and indirectly related companies, which have already been written about previously, complained to the Procurement Monitoring Bureau about the procurement they themselves had earlier agreed to, but the PMB rejected the complaint, allowing the Riga City Council to sign the contract. Dissatisfied with this outcome, the companies turned to the Administrative Court, but the Administrative Court also rejected their claims as unfounded, with one exception regarding one part of the procurement. The applicants had also asked the court to impose interim measures – to prohibit the signing of the contract until the case is examined on the merits – but the court did not grant this either.
Now these same companies have filed an ancillary complaint with the court; meanwhile, the court has not prohibited the signing of the contracts and, in fact, the decision to sign lies entirely with the Riga City Council. The Riga City Council previously explained that everything is in order with the lottery procedure and that all seven caterers who had submitted bids in the procurement and qualified had signed that they did not object to the lottery. Objections appeared later and only from those companies that were less lucky in the draw.
It is noteworthy that one of the companies – SIA Baltic Restaurants Latvia – is publicly and legally represented by Mārtiņš Dambergs, who in 2020 himself worked at the Riga City Council as the head of the interim administration office and at that time “distinguished himself” as a substantial bonus recipient. There is a possibility that he still has connections that can be used to delay the conclusion of contracts with competitors.
For the Riga City Council, such delaying in turn creates significant risks, because it is unclear who will be feeding the children if the contracts are not signed – will such an opportunity be given to the previous caterers? That would not be lawful, given that the previous contract has expired and a new procurement has been successfully concluded; moreover, in the new procurement the price per portion is lower than in the previous contracts.
It was not possible to reach the deputy head of the Riga City Council Public Procurement Department, Vita Meiere, by phone; however, the Council’s External Communications Department comments laconically: “The Public Procurement Law does not stipulate within what period of time the contracting authority must sign the procurement contract. Taking into account that court proceedings are currently under way and a cassation complaint has been submitted to the court, which the court has accepted for consideration, the court has recommended that the contracting authority should currently not sign the contracts until the Senate has examined the case.”
Originally published at https://inc-baltics.com/rigas-domes-del-rigas-skolas-berni-var-palikt-bez-pusdienam/
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