5 contestants for the Technical Advisor contract for the new big infrastructure projects in Greece

The giant competition for the recruitment of Technical Consultants of the Ministry of Infrastructure to run the new major infrastructure projects caused great interest. According to information from ypodomes.com, five schemes were submitted to the competition, which are the following:

1. Association AECOM – OMEK – ROAD

2. Association HILL – NAMA – CONCEPT – PRC – TREK – SAMARAS

3. PLANET (with loans from ILF AUSTRIA – DENCO – SOFIOS – KION – EXPERIENCE – OMETE – GEOSYSTA – TSAKOUMIS – EUROCONSULTANTS)

4. Association PROCEDURE with ENVIROPLAN (on loan from EUROPEAN PROFILES)

5. SALFO (with loans from Z&A and SYSTEMA)

How will it work

The overcrowding of projects foreseen due to the activation of the Recovery Fund and the new NSRF 2021-2027, has created the need to hire companies that will assist and accelerate the work of experienced executives of the ministry. This large tender has a cost with VAT of 46.5 million euros (amount without VAT 37.5 million euros) and is the largest that has come out in the country in recent years, surpassing that of Attiko Metro which has also started.

According to the announcement of the framework competition from the total of five participants, the ministry of YPOME will finally choose three schemes with which it will contract. The selection will be made by 85% from the technical adequacy of the schemes and by 15% from their financial offer. This is done to ensure technical perfection in supporting the work of the ministry.

In each new project that Infrastructure will want to run, it will call these three groups that will be invited each time, for each project to give their offer to be hired and to help in the maturation and place for auction of the projects.

The big projects

The need for the assistance of a specialized consultant comes due to the accumulation of items in the ministry of YPOME. The Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Costas Karamanlis has announced the preparation of a comprehensive project program of 13 billion euros, which includes emblematic projects, such as the Attiki Odos extensions, the VOAK, the Salamina-Perama submarine link, the northern part of E65 , the flyover of Peripheral Thessaloniki, road safety interventions in 7,000 points etc.

In addition, several more projects have been included in the Recovery Fund, at the same time the list of projects for the NSRF 2021-2027 is being prepared. There is, say sources with knowledge of the subject, a historic opportunity for many projects to run in the country at the same time, even likening it to the period of preparation for the Olympic Games.

The maturation of these projects, especially those that combine the NSRF with the Recovery Fund, creates increased demands and acceleration of implementation times and therefore, this big competition emerged.

The announcement of the competition is expected to air in the coming days. The duration of the services according to information will be 4-5 years to cover all the needs that will arise afterwards.

Technical Consultant in other projects

At the same time, we are waiting for the announcement of another big consulting competition by ERGOSE, a competition with a large budget that concerns the current projects.

The role of the Technical Consultant has been upgraded as, according to sources, it is deemed necessary in order to be able to meet the schedules set in order to stop the constant phenomenon of “eternal projects”. That is, the fact that the projects that are planned take many years to be signed, while when they start, they forget to complete them.

The market, for its part, does not forget to point this out at every opportunity. It is now understood that even the era of endless court engagements ultimately damaged the market itself which on the one hand demanded a new object but when it was available, it blocked and there was no steady flow in the production of public works.