Alina Guler, Head of Energy & Waste Management practice supported a local construction company throughout the process of challenging and reversing the award of a multi-million conversion project of a landfill.

We remind here that the Court of Justice of the European Union found that Romania had failed to comply with the obligation to close, seal and rehabilitate as soon as possible all landfills operating without a valid permit, violating the obligations under the Landfill Directive (Directive 1999/31/EC), as subsequently amended and complemented.
The authorities are responsible to organize the tender proceedings in compliance with the legal requirements, in order to reach as soon as possible the standards imposed by the European enactments. The tender flaws or irregularities usually trigger the postponement of the process and expose Romanian state to unwanted consequences. Such was the case here.

Alina Guler has intensively worked on a file concerning the wrongful allocation of a 10 million Euros project. The assessment of the complex technical aspects of the tender documentation, alongside the gap analysis of compliance with the public procurement legislation, have proven to be essential work towards the accomplishment of the award cancellation.

It is known that the public procurement policies and procedures have to be followed through with diligence and accuracy in order to produce a transparent and valid acquisition of services and products by the Romanian authorities. In this specific instance, the consultant’s in-depth knowledge regarding landfills and tender requirements were all crucial for identifying and fighting against the gaps in the tender assessment, this proving to be the key to our common success on the matter.

The court reiterated that the general rule regarding the compliance with the tender requirement is essential not only for the bidders but also for the contracting entity itself, and we believe that we have demonstrated our expertise in this respect. We are a team with an extended proficiency in cases suchlike, i.e., public procurements and regulatory, construction and sophisticated fields such as waste management and landfills, having a long track record of keeping the authorities in check with the existing regulation governing all these processes, said Alina Guler.