The Ministry of Transport has ordered NTA Metropolitan Mass Transit System to continue the locomotives tender as planned. In a letter sent today to NTA CEO Yehuda Bar-On, Ministry of Transport director general Uzi Itzhaki gave a green light for the tender, telling Bar-On "to complete the tender from the stage at which it was halted." The Ministry of Transport is thereby putting itself in opposition to the Ministry of Finance, after Accountant General Michal Abadi-Boiangiu prevented the completion of the tender process nine months ago because she suspected it was faulty.
NTA was ready in early 2015 to declare Chinese company CNR the winner in the locomotives tender. The two European bidders in the tender, however, Spanish company CAF and French company Alstom, accused NTA of intentionally designing the tender to fit CNR, and alleged that the threshold conditions had been deliberately lowered, with too heavy an emphasis on the price at the expense of quality. The Ministry of Finance therefore decided to appoint Ronen Wolfman, its former deputy director general, and Yitzhak Ezer, CPA, to examine whether the tender had indeed been biased in favor of the Chinese company.
Three months ago, the team presented its conclusions to Abadi-Boiangiu, who has not yet published them. The Ministry of Transport has now given up on waiting for the Ministry of Finance. In his letter today, Itzhaki writes, "Over nine months have passed since a comprehensive and thorough check was conducted, with supplementary examinations of legal and professional aspects. In recent days, it emerged that the Minister of Transport's queries to the Accountant General had reached a dead end, with no evidence of impropriety or other matters requiring intervention having been discovered."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 26, 2015
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