Two consulting companies sue LNG Croatia to European Anti-fraud Office (OLAF) because of the competition for consultant selection who will lead the business, financial and legal advice on the LNG project, because they think that elected consultant Price Waterhouse Coopers was privileged.
PWC otherwise advises HEP in the process of restructuring, it also advised Hypo bank on the land sale for the terminal construction on Krk. PWC offer was the most expensive and amounted to 2,2 MEUR, and it was assessed with 93.7 of a maximum 100 points. One company has been reportedly considering the submission of criminal charges.
Poslovni dnevnik daily wrote about the displeasure of competition, EIHP consortium and Ernst & Young as LNG Croatia refused to provide to contestants the documentation about the evaluation of their bids and other products, and they are not allowed even an offers overview, as they say, it is a standard in projects financed by EU funds.
All offers are marked as secret which prevented the complaints and the appellants actually only look back to the fact that they could not submit a complaint. The appellants then doubted the success of the appeal because the competition was not enforced by law on public procurement, but they considered seeking the prohibition on contract signing of Commercial Court in order to prevent further damage to the available EU funds. Director of LNG Croatia Mladen Antunovic said that the tender procedure was done strictly according to the rules when applying on the CEF fund.
