Filenews 30 April 2023 - by Chrysanthos Manolis
Since 2018, CERA's decision was issued calling on EAC to start the procedures so that from 2020 the supply and installation of a total of 400,000 smart meters in the system can begin and from 2021 a tender was announced -with a long delay- but until today a go. The coming and going of companies to the Tender Review Authority continues, resulting in the tender being pending and smart meters being delayed.
And the resolution of this outrageous (for many reasons) case will be delayed for at least a few more months, as on 13/4/23 a new appeal was filed by the Chinese Ningbo Sanxing Smart Electric Co Ltd against EAC's recent decision to award (again) the tender to the Cypriot company NewCytech Business Solutions Ltd (of the Logicom Group).
The Chinese company – which was accused at some stage of the tender for submitting false or misleading or invalid documents to certify its previous experience in the subject of the tender – filed, in addition to an appeal for annulment of the new EAC decision, a request for temporary prohibitive measures by the Tender Review Authority, in order to prevent the Electricity Authority from proceeding with the implementation of the offer (supply of smart meters by NewCytech Business Solutions Ltd), before the completion of the new appeal.
As soon as possible...
According to the Reviewing Authority, EAC did not file an objection against the issuance of a prohibition decree, therefore the Electricity Authority is now obliged to enter into a new procedure before the Reviewing Authority, with an unforeseen development, as in many cases the decisions of the state-semi-state authorities are annulled even for non-substantive - completely formal- reasons.
As we were told by EAC, it was chosen not to object to the adoption of provisional -prohibitive- measures, in an effort to ensure that the inevitable process of examining the merits of the Chinese company's appeal will be examined as soon as possible. It has been established, we were told by the Electricity Authority, that when an objection is lodged against the adoption of interim measures, valuable procedural time is lost.
We are informed that the Tender Review Authority has set June 1, 2023 as the date for the commencement of the appeal hearing, therefore on that day Ningbo Sanxing Smart Electric Co Ltd will be asked to open its papers and inform all parties of the reasons for its new appeal. In any case, however, it is reasonable to expect a delay of a few months, at least, so the prospect of finally starting the installation of smart meters in 2023 is probably moving away.
Initially, EAC had awarded the tender to the Chinese company for the amount of €19.42 million. The Cypriot NewCytech filed an appeal for annulment of the decision and indeed the Reviewer declared EAC's decision invalid, which then identified a problem in the validity of Ningbo Sanxing's documents and awarded the offer to the Cypriot company. The Chinese did not give up and also appealed, which they won, because EAC was judged to have made a procedural error, namely in relation to its communication with Ningbo.
In April '23, EAC took a new decision, awarding the tender again to NewCytech. This was followed on 13/4 by the new appeal of the Chinese company.
