The Minister Dan Ťok: Kapsch applies non-standard practices in the contested toll tender 16/11/2017|Press releasesThe Ministry of Transport repeatedly criticizes Kapsch for obstructing the process, with the aim of cancelling the toll tender before other bidders can come with bids that will show how far form competitive the current price is. The Ministry of Transport considers the action of the Office for the Protection of Competition (ÚOHS), i.e. the antimonopoly office, in checking the supply and operation of the toll system as highly extensive, raising doubts what the actual reason is. "We have so far considered the steps by the antimonopoly office in checking the filings from Kapsch as correct. This is one of the biggest public orders in history, so be it properly and impartially reviewed. Recently, however, the ÚOHS took several steps that we must label (at least) as non-standard," says the Minister of Transport Dan Ťok. At the end of October the antimonopoly office called on the Ministry of Transport to supplement the order in the documents from the bidders. At the same time it requested that the ministry indicates in these documents what is the business secret and submitted it to the office within five days. "It has more than three thousand pages and the Ministry of Transport got five days for it, including Saturday and Sunday, so it was in fact three days. It was not realistic to meet such a requirement, not only for time reasons," says the minister. The protection of the business secret of bidders is the statutory duty of the ÚOHZ and the Ministry of Transport cannot determine what it is and it is not. This means that the Ministry can only indicate the facts identified by the bidder itself, which, in its view, may not be sufficient. Therefore, the Ministry of Transport can by no means substitute the role of the ÚOHS in the protection of business secrets," adds Ťok. According to minister Ťok, the law does not stipulate any another requirement for the ÚOHZ which the Ministry of Transport received last week. This time, again, it came on Friday and the deadline was five days. "We shall also provide to the office the protocols of the assessment of bidders' qualification, which do not have to be prepared under the law and which can provide valuable information about the competition and business secrets of other bidders. when reviewing the file. This unfortunately creates the impression that the objective is no longer the proper review of the tender, but to get us into time stress and find an excuse for cancelling or suspending the tender, as Kapsch requires," the minister adds. The Ministry of Transport decided to follow all the above-mentioned requirements to the antimonopoly office. In its reply to the antimonopoly office it wrote, among other things: "The contracting authority submits with this letter to repeated and unreasonable pressure, even though the law does not stipulate this procedure for the office. The contracting authority does this mainly because the Czech Republic would suffer, if the threats of the office materialise, damage in unprecedented scope, because the cancelled tender procedure would fundamentally affect further development in the current competition. However, the contracting authority believes that this conduct cannot enjoy protection", the Ministry of Transport states in its reply.