Filenews 27 March 2024 - by Chrysanthos Manoli
The categorical – yesterday – decision of the Administrative Court that Cyta cannot, by law, implement the tender awarded to it by EAC for the installation of 400,000 smart meters, turns upside down and calls into question the financing of the project by the EU and the Recovery Fund with €35 million.
The deadline of the Republic of Cyprus and EAC for signing a contract and collecting the €35 million to finance the installation of smart meters expires at the end of March and EAC is not in a position, following yesterday's decision of the Administrative Court, to shake hands with any interested party.
According to information provided by "F" from EAC, the organization will appeal the court's decision. That means it will take a few months — or many months — for the appeal to be heard. In the meantime, the deadline for compliance with the Recovery Fund will have passed and the Republic of Cyprus will risk not only losing €35 million, but also the freezing the disbursement of other tranches of millions of euros from the Recovery Fund for other projects agreed.
EAC told "F" that in cooperation with the Ministry of Energy and the Government in general, an effort will be made, through the urgent procedure, to persuade the EU to extend the deadline for the implementation of the project for the installation of smart meters, so as not to lose the €35 million from the EU with the resultant cost to be borne by Cypriot taxpayers.
In any case, as we have been told, EAC cannot award the tender to any bidder other than EAC, since it has already rejected the offers of Logicom and New Cytech Business Solutions (belonging to the same group of companies) for technical reasons. This means that if EAC's appeal against yesterday's decision is rejected, EAC will cancel the tender and re-announce another one for the third time. This means a further delay of several months.
According to philenews, the Administrative Court annulled EAC's decision to award Cyta the smart meters project, emphatically stressing that it is glaring, in its judgment, that no competence is granted to the Cyprus Telecommunications Authority by the relevant legislation governing its operation, namely Cap. 302, to supply appliances, in particular electricity consumption meters, ancillary equipment, software, staff training and maintenance services for such appliances.
The Cyprus Telecommunications Authority, the Court said, has authority and competence to provide telecommunications services only. It has no power to provide equipment, especially equipment related to devices for measuring electricity consumption. The contested tender does not concern telecommunications, nor does it fall into that category, it added.
In light of the above, it should be noted that the contested decision (award of the tender to Cyta) is the product of manifest illegality and is annulled.
