OSEA, YPERASTIKA, OSYPA, EMEL and ZINON bus companies are protesting at 08.30 this morning outside the temporary building of the House of Representatives, at the Philoxenia Conference Center.
More than 100 buses will take part in the event and the purpose, according to the organizers, is "to denounce the scandalous public offering tender process".
In a joint written statement, the companies OSEA and Intercity "denounce methodical actions at various levels, for their neutralization and assignment of public transport to specific financial interests. OSEA and Intercity, through the tender of the Ministry of Transport, claimed the contracts for public passenger transport for the District of Famagusta and the transit routes respectively, services that have been offered with great success in the last decade ".
He added that "in accordance with the decisions of the Evaluation Committee and the Bidding Council of the Department of Public Works, the bids submitted by the two bodies were valid, without any remarks" but the Commission ruled that the MLKP Consortium for the contract and the province of Amm for transit transport ”.
This was followed by legal appeals to the Administrative Court, as provided for in the proceedings, but the two different judges examining the two appeals described "for different reasons, the invalidity of the MLKP Consortium's invalidity and overturned the decisions of the Evaluation Committee and the Tender Council." in the Consortium "while" the only expected development was to decide on the awarding of the two contracts to the next contractors who were assessed to meet the requirements of the tender and gave the most advantageous valid offers ".
Instead, the announcement notes "in the midst of a lot of information and data, that there was a method for complying with the Judicial Decisions, the Evaluation Committee, with a delay of two months after the Judicial Decisions, instead of assigning, decided to re-evaluate both bidders, ie and the Consortium that declared invalid two Court Decisions but also the remaining claimants with already evaluated as valid bids and with financial proposals within the limits of the provisions ".
The decision, according to the two companies, "confirms the schemes, as it is clear that an attempt is being made to put the invalid Consortium out the window".
In their announcement, OSEA and Intercity also state that "the Auditor General continues to participate as an observer in the process, while he has already expressed, publicly and without hesitation, his favor to the Consortium, with his posts on Twitter", and note that "The representative of the Legal Service also has a strong participation in the proceedings, with which we are opposed to appeals against the court decisions that justify us."
In addition, a press release from the Coordinating Group of Public Transport Companies states that today outside the Parliament will be "professional drivers who with financial sacrifices supported the project of European Cyprus to create public transport from scratch. The announcement of the offers for the new decade in the public transport of the place, were cut and sewn to the measures of specific circles ".
The Ministry of Transport's evaluation team added that "the bids to the Consortium, which has been annulled three times in the Cypriot courts, whose main partner appears in the Panama Papers for tax evasion", have been awarded.
It is also noted that the Auditor General "celebrates on Social Media when a specific Consortium has won four of the six competitions and congratulates that the fragile existing system has been defeated," it said.
The press release also notes that the companies feel "strongly the systematic devaluation of our work and contribution over the years" and stress that all directions are not going to accept "such decisions", that they will ask MPs to "exercise". parliamentary control over perforated procedures and bids ", require" substantial and in-depth investigation into public transport bids and criminal or administrative liability "and demand" from the executive branch to put a stop to individuals and institutions that have escaped " on the terms of their mandate. "