Empresa Metro de Bogotá and multilateral bank resolve conflict of interest in tender for metro line 2

This is an automated translation of the original release published in Spanish.

Metro de Bogotá Press Release

The multilateral banks and Empresa Metro de Bogotá resolved the conflict of interest that had arisen in the contracting process for the Second Line of the Bogotá Metro, based on the Prequalification Document and the power of EMB, as a contractor, to accept or reject any request at any time, without incurring any obligation to the participants.

Of the four initially prequalified, two were disqualified from the process.

These are the groups: APCA 1: Metro Line 2 Bogotá, made up of Mota Engil Colombia SAS with 66% and CRRC (Hong Kong) Co Limited Sucursal Colombia with 34%; APCA 2: Metro Line 2, made up of China Harbour Engineering Company Limited (75%) and Xi'an Rail Transportation Group Company Limited (25%).

In this way, the following groups are enabled to continue in the bidding process: APCA 3: Bogotá Metro 2, made up of China Railway Construction Corporation International Investment Co. Ltd. (75%) and China Railway Construction Electrification Bureau Group Co. Ltd. (25%), APCA 4: Unión L2 Bogotá Metro Rail made up of Sacyr Concesiones Colombia Participadas II SAS (40%), CAF Investment Projects SA (20%) and Acciona Concesiones SL (40%).

The decision of the multilateral banks and EMB comes after analyzing the protest filed by APCA 4 due to a possible conflict of interest between APCAs 1, 2 and 3. EMB and the multilateral banks evaluated the facts that are the subject of the protest and established that, in accordance with the IDB Procurement Manual and the Prequalification Document (literal d, numeral 4.2), there is a conflict of interest between APCA 1 and APCA 2.

The above is because the firm China Communications Construction Company Limited (CCCC) is the direct controller of CHEC (APCA 2), and has a shareholding in Mota-Engil SGPS SA (APCA 1), a situation that gives CCCC the possibility of influencing both offers.

The EMB gave the prequalified firms involved in this conflict of interest the opportunity to resolve it.

However, the responses submitted by APCAS 1 and 2 did not resolve the conflict of interest to the satisfaction of the EMB and the multilateral banks, and were therefore disqualified.

The EMB proposed alternative solutions to the conflict based on the fundamental principle of preserving the greatest possible plurality of bidders, always seeking to have favorable competition for the city.

The EMB and the multilateral banks evaluated all scenarios, including the alternative solutions presented by APCAS 1 and 2, and concluded that the rules of the IDB Procurement Policy and the Prequalification Document should be applied, which means disqualifying APCAS 1 and 2, which are involved in the conflict.

This decision does not affect the bidding schedule, so bids will be received until December 20 of this year and the award is expected on April 24, 2025.