Airport Concession: Tender Saga Awaits Resolution

The Tender Commission for Concession of Montenegrin Airports, at its session scheduled for today by its President Nik Đeljošaj, should finally complete the report on the results of the tender procedure and prepare all other supporting documentation.

This body is obliged to submit to the Ministry of Transport a ranking list of bidders, a Proposal for a decision on the selection of the most favorable bid, a Report on the conducted procedure with an explanation of the ranking list of bidders, and a Minutes on the course of the procedure.

This was confirmed yesterday by a source familiar with the tender process to "Vijesti", emphasizing that the work of the commission, which has been the center of attention of the Montenegrin, but also of a part of the interested international public for the past two months due to its moves, is finally expected to be completed today. On May 9, the commission began evaluating the bids that were submitted to the tender, which was announced in 2019, and in the end, only two bidders submitted: the South Korean Incheon International Airport Corporation (IIAC) and the Luxembourg-American Corporacion America Airports (CAAP).

The commission worked from 10 am to late evening on Tuesday and Wednesday, but did not finish its work because, as "Vijesti" was unofficially told, the reason for this was that the commission members could not agree on whether some things would be included in the minutes.

According to the procedure, the Tender Commission submits the documents to the Ministry of Transport, which then processes them further towards the Government, which must make a final decision on whether or not to accept the offer of the first-place bidder in the tender or declare the entire process of granting Montenegrin airports for long-term lease unsuccessful. Bidders have 15 days from the day the Ministry of Transport publishes the Tender Commission's decision on its website to appeal it. In the event of an appeal, the competent Concessions Commission has 30 days to decide on the appeal, which could delay the Government's final decision on the fate of this marathon process until early September.

According to unofficial information, CAAP will most likely appeal the Tender Commission's decision to declare IIAC's bid as the first-ranked bidder because it believes that the commission's work was allegedly illegal, that is, that it was not autonomous in its decision-making but was influenced by outside influences, and that the commission could not have evaluated the same document (technical bid) twice and given different grades.

The Commission was originally supposed to complete its work within 30 days, but it did not do so due to a dispute that arose over whether some of its members had adequately scored the technical part of the two bids. Namely, the Tender Commission initially decided that the IIAC bid, which after evaluating its technical aspects was 0,3 points short of reaching the minimum of 80 required points, therefore allegedly did not meet the conditions for passing to the second round of the process, in which its financial aspects would be reviewed and evaluated. However, this was not officially stated in the minutes at the time.

The decision that the Korean bid allegedly did not meet the required minimum points in the technical section caused a dispute between the commission members from the Ministry of Finance and the Union of Municipalities of Montenegro, i.e. the cabinet of Prime Minister Milojko Spajić on the one hand, and representatives of the Ministry of Transport and the president of the commission Niko Đeljošaj on the other.

Representatives of the Ministry of Finance, the Republic of Montenegro and the Prime Minister's Office believed that CAAP was being favored, and that IIAC was being unfoundedly eliminated from the entire procedure. After reactions from the Government's consultant on this project - IFC (part of the World Bank), which believed that the tender rules on voting were not respected, and from Prime Minister Spajić himself, the commission changed its original position and on June 10 - the day after the expiration of the originally given 30-day deadline from the closing of the tender to complete its work - the commission announced that it had "found that the offers of both bidders were technically correct", and that it would continue evaluating their financial part.

At the end of June, Đeljošaj told IFC on his own behalf that he would not continue the airport concession procedure until the consultant signed a notarized statement assuming material and legal responsibility for any damage Montenegro might suffer due to his legal interpretations in the deal, and accused him of working for a South Korean company. An official response from IFC never arrived.

In the financial part, IIAC offered 100 million fixed concession fee, and 35 percent of all annual revenues of the airports in Tivat and Podgorica as a variable part of the concession fee. CAAP, on the other hand, offered 101 million fixed fees and just over 17 percent of annual revenues as a variable fee. The Tender Commission announced on July 4 that after evaluating the financial part, IIAC's overall offer was ranked first with 96,18 points, while CAAP's offer was ranked second with 65,18 points.

However, this final outcome has not yet been officially verified by adopting the Proposal for a Decision on the Selection of the Most Favorable Bid, the Report on the Conducted Procedure with an Explanation of the Ranking List of Bidders, and the Minutes on the Course of the Procedure.