Train tender in Belgium hits the buffers (almost) like in Portugal

A couple of days ago I was contacted by Joren Vuylsteke, a PhD candidate at KU Leuven. He was wondering what had happened with the Portuguese train tender that garnered so much attention a couple of years ago. Regarding that one, well, nothing has happened. We still do not have a first instance judgment on the case.

The reason for his interest is the main reason for this blogpost. Turns out that Belgium has also put out a large tender for new trains...and the issue of where they are to be built has arisen there as well. There are significant differences between both cases though. In the Portuguese tender, the award criteria included the illegal criterion for the trains to be assembled in Portugal. The Belgian tender did not.

So why the interest then? Well, turns out that CAF was the preferred bidder for the Belgian 'contract of the century' and Alstom is not happy...since it has a factory in Brugge. Alstom complained to politicians who got involved at this stage and have put pressure on the contracting authority to take into account the advantages for the local economy when assessing the bids.

The contract has not been awarded yet as it was suspended by the State Council, however the contracting authority is expected to go ahead. However, politicians are still putting pressure on the contracting authority, this time around because CAF is involved in the construction of the new Jerusalem Light Rail project. The minister has been called up to Parliament to explain the decision-making process in a debate scheduled for next Tuesday.

What I find fascinating is that in both cases the company involved is Alstom, since Alstom is the preferred bidder in Portugal and the only tenderer who made the most of the buried detail about the trains possibly being assembled on the maintenance shed the tenderer has to deliver.

This settles the question (well, comment) that 'everyone does it out there and we would be stupid not to do the same.' No, they do not.

I find it fascinating as well that the line of argument that 'no tenderer complained about the award criteria when the tender was launched' was used against me regarding the Portuguese tender and here we are, looking at an Alstom that also did not challenge the award criteria in the Belgian tender. What goes around, comes around as they say.

(It is a spurious argument to make, imho. No tenderer wants to be the troublemaker early in the procedure and signal themselves as putting the contracting authority in check, unless they really have to.)

Many thanks to Joren to bringing this to my attention and the info/details about what has been happening.