The Tender Commission responsible for awarding the concession for Podgorica and Tivat airports has not yet completed its work, with the deadline for their decision set for today. The government body must rank the bids of the two potential concessionaires: Incheon International Airport Corporation (IIAC) and Corporación América Airports (CAAP). Last week, IIAC was ranked first, with the Luxembourg-American consortium CAAP in second place.
During a lengthy session yesterday, the commission reviewed meeting minutes and reports but has not finalized its decision. There are no confirmed updates on whether the commission’s previous ranking might change.
However, CAAP has indicated it will likely file an official complaint against the commission’s decision. If a complaint is submitted, the Ministry of Transport, which handles the concession process, will be unable to submit the final report to the government by the planned date of July 25. Instead, it will have to wait up to 30 days to respond to the complaint, potentially delaying the government’s decision on the airport concession until after September.
According to the 2019 Concessions Law, bidders have 15 days to file complaints with the Tender Commission, which then must decide within 30 days. Filing a complaint suspends all further procedures until the complaint is resolved.
CAAP warned the commission on June 13 that it might file a complaint, arguing that the commission improperly re-evaluated technical bids twice. Initially, IIAC’s bid did not score enough points to advance to the financial evaluation phase. However, after intervention from an IFC consultant advising the government, a second evaluation was held, allowing IIAC to qualify and receive a higher score, with CAAP’s score also increasing compared to the first evaluation.
CAAP considers the second technical evaluation and the subsequent financial scoring unlawful. They argue that IIAC’s financial offer should not have been considered because their technical score initially fell below the required threshold of 80 points.
CAAP claims the commission, under external pressure, changed the initial scores, granting IIAC 81.69 points on the second evaluation. They stress that the same commission members assessed the documents both times, making differing scores legally unacceptable under the Concessions Law, which does not allow repeated or successive evaluations.
In conclusion, CAAP asserts that the Tender Commission was established as an independent and professional body, and its autonomy is compromised if it cannot make decisions independently, as appears to be the case.
