Approved today by the Parliamentary Group of the Democratic Rally and directed to be submitted to the House of Representatives, a Proposed Law (by the Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Legal Affairs, Justice and Public Order and member (Coordinator DISY) of the Committee on Transport, Communications and Works, Limassol Councillor Fotini Tsiridou), which aims to normalize the procedure for the completion of major public works and at the same time speed up the procedures for the examination of appeals by the Tender Review Authority.
More specifically, the Proposed Law introduces a new provision, which establishes conditions for the issuance of a Project Freeze Order in the event of an appeal, unless the entity seeking a Project Freeze Order pays a security deposit to be determined by the Bid Review Authority and proportionate to the liquidated damages clauses found in the contract awarding the specific project.
This essentially serves four purposes:
A/ To avoid malicious and arbitrary appeals and requests for Project Blocking Orders,
B/ The now proven (through a guarantee) financial capacity of the person proceeding before the Tender Review Authority to appeal and obtain an order that he/she can afford to undertake and/or complete the project,
C/ Aligning the procedures for the issuance of interim unilateral Orders applicable in all other cases before the Courts with the procedures now in place before the Bid Review Authority for the issuance of Stop Work Orders; and
D/ Avoiding delays and thus financial burdens at the expense of the State and by extension the taxpayer for major public works projects.
In addition, the Proposed Law makes another change, which is intended to "unclog" the Bid Review Authority from the massive appeals for various public works projects. It is currently the case that for any project over half a million euros, the AAP has the right to consider an appeal, contrary to the European Directive, which stipulates that appeals should be considered for projects over 5 million euros, with the result that the AAP is currently inundated with appeals, which could be heard by the Administrative Court, and consequently lengthy procedures and long delays are observed to the detriment of the State and the taxpayer. However, due to the size and characteristics of the Cypriot economy and because the EUR 5 million threshold would exclude a significant portion of projects from appealability, the Proposed Law sets the threshold at EUR 2 million.
Ms Tsiridou's Proposed Law will be tabled under the procedures in the House of Representatives.
Contents of this article including associated images are belongs to Cyprus Times
Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or Cyprus Times
Source
