TSV (Transport Construction and Reconstruction) SPJSC - Sofia

The Russian dredgers have abandoned the port in Burgas Surprisingly, the union "EU Build" DZZD, which made headlines with the case of deepening the port of Varna with Russian dredgers, has refused to do the same with the port of Burgas, even though it was determined to be the winner. In the public contract of the state enterprise "Port Infrastructure" (DPPP) for BGN 70 million, six candidates participated, but two remained in the final. Cosmos Van Oord" DZZD. He will carry out the dredging of the "Burgas-West" port at a price close to the announced indicative value of BGN 70 million without VAT. The difference is only BGN 16,220. This is clear from the published documents in the public procurement register. The deepening of the port of Burgas is part of the large project of the Domuschievi brothers to expand the port of Burgas for BGN 120 million, which is financed with European money under the "Connected Europe" mechanism. The goal is to be able to handle the world's largest container ships at the port. This order is being monitored by the European Commission. The reason is that Bulgaria has proposed that the project for the deepening of the port of Burgas be implemented with European funds. It was entered as a reserve in order to save the funds from the operational program "Transport" 2014 - 2020 from loss. By the middle of the year, 178 million euros were at risk under the program, the financial implementation of which ends at the end of the year. It is not clear whether Brussels will approve the project, but certainly the European Commission does not look kindly when there is no competition in the tender. State Enterprise "Port Infrastructure" announced the public order for capital dredging - pool maneuvering area to T2A and port terminal "Burgas - West" during the interim government of Galab Donev - on May 17, 2023. The proposals were opened on June 22. Six candidates submitted bids. "EU Build" DZZD with participants "SEM Remont" and "EIS construction company"; "Consortium Kosmos Van Oord" DZZD, which includes "Kosmos Shipping" from Varna and "Van Oord Dredging and Marine Contractors BV" (Netherlands), the proposal was submitted by "Kosmos Shipping"; "Boskalis", Romania; A merger between TIS Hidrotechnika, Ukraine and United Marine Dredging (United Arab Emirates), the offer was submitted by lawyer Sevdalin Stamov; Jan De Nul nv, Belgium; "Dredging International NV", Belgium, and the proposal was submitted by Oleg Temnikov; After reviewing the documents, the appointed committee finds deficiencies, incompleteness, factual errors or non-compliance with the requirements for the selection criteria in the documents submitted by the participants. They have been notified of this and given a deadline to correct the errors. After checking the additionally submitted documents, the commission found that the offers of three candidates did not meet the set selection criteria. These are the Romanian "Boskalis", the union between the Ukrainian "TIS-Hydrotechnika" and United Marine Dredging (UAE) and Belgium's Jan De Nul nv. The remaining participants - "EU Build" DZZD, "Dredging International NV" and "Consortium Cosmos Van Oord" DZZD have been allowed to consider their technical proposals. The commission found that the technical offer of the Belgian company "Dredging International NV" did not meet the requirements of the contracting authority and removed it from the competition. Thus, until the opening of the price proposals on August 30, only two participants were admitted. These are "EU Build" DZZD and "Consortium Cosmos Van Oord" DZZD. The evaluation of the candidates is based on the "economically most advantageous price" criterion, in which the technical proposal has 60% weight, and the price - 40%. Of the two candidates, "EU Build" DZZD gives a lower price - BGN 68,806,680.27 excluding VAT and receives the maximum 40 points. Their technical proposal was also rated higher by the committee compared to the other candidate (46.97 points). They promise to fulfill the order in 450 calendar days. With a total of 86.97 points, "EU Build" won the contract. The commission ranked "Consortium Cosmos Van Oord" DZZD in second place with a price of BGN 69,983,779.01 excluding VAT - slightly lower than the estimated value. Their technical proposal was evaluated with 39.33 points and they collected a total of 84.33 points. The association promises to do the dredging of the port in 204 calendar days. Surprisingly, on September 8, the manager of "EU Build" Vasil Vassilev informed the commission that in the event that the association is selected as the contractor, it will not conclude a contract with the contracting authority for the execution of the order. The participant points out that there is no possibility "to perform in the required volume, in the stipulated period of execution, in view of the inflationary processes in the country and the increase in the price of fuels". This means that as of September 8, 2023, its bid is no longer valid, documents published in the public procurement register show. Vasil Vasilev hung up his mobile phone after being asked by Mediapool to comment on why they gave up. It is all too likely that the real reason for EU Build to give up is that it hired the Russian company Gidrostroy as a subcontractor for the dredging. At least that's what he did with the deepening of the "Varna" port, which began during the third GERB government. Then the state-owned enterprise "Port Infrastructure" with an internal award gave BGN 435 million to the state-owned company "Transport Construction and Reconstruction" (TSV EAD). It, in turn, provided BGN 393 million to "EU Build" DZZD, which is dredging the port of Varna, which reaches the gate of the honorary chairman of DPS Ahmed Dogan. The association "EU Build" includes the Varna "SEM Remont" of Vasil Vasilev and "EIS construction company" of the brothers Evgeni and Veselin Ognyanovi, who have business relations with "BMF Port Burgas" of the Domuschievi brothers. An additional reason for the refusal of "EU Build" could be suspicions of document fraud for hundreds of millions through Russian diggers. The case is being investigated by the prosecutor's office following a report by the State Financial Inspection Agency. After the refusal of "EU Build" to fulfill the order for the port of Burgas, the association was removed from the competition. Thus, only the offer of "Consortium Cosmos Van Oord" DZZD with a proposed total final price for the execution of the order - BGN 69,983,779.01 excluding VAT remains in the final. For this reason, the general director of DPPI Petar Seferov announced them as the winner with a decision published on September 13 in the public procurement register. Varna's "Cosmos Shipping" and "Van Oord Dredging and Marine Contractors BV" (Netherlands) enter "Consortium Cosmos Van Oord" DZZD with equal shares. The association was registered back in 2006, and in 2017 it was registered for VAT. Its managers are Plamen Ivanov Prodanov and Marius Kristiaan Kamsteeg. "Van Oord" is an international company with offices and representatives all over the world. Its main office is in Rotterdam. They do not have a representative office in Bulgaria, and their nearest office is in the Romanian port of Constanta. The company is one of the industry leaders in the construction of ports and dredging of sea lanes. It has participated in a number of international projects, among which the largest are the construction of the second Suez Canal in Egypt and the expansion of the port of Maasvlakte 2 in Rotterdam. A contract with the selected contractor has not yet been signed. The reason is that the 10-day period for appealing the order has not expired.