The Lithuanian Court of Appeal has delivered another significant judgment in the field of public procurement and public-private partnership (PPP), ruling in favour of Spi 1 in relation to the selection process for a major PPP project.
The Court dismissed the appeals challenging the outcome of the selection process and upheld the judgments of the Klaipėda and Šiauliai Regional Courts, which had rejected the claims concerning the lawfulness of the selection procedure. In doing so, the Court confirmed both the validity of the contracting authority’s decisions and the lawfulness of the selection results.
The Court also clarified that a contracting authority is entitled to request bidders to provide additional information or documents necessary to assess the feasibility of their proposals. The submission of such information does not infringe the principles of public procurement, provided that it does not alter the substance of the bid.
Furthermore, the Lithuanian Court of Appeal clarified that suppliers whose controlling persons have been convicted of corruption-related criminal offences lack the legal interest required to challenge the outcome of a public procurement procedure. As such suppliers fall within a mandatory exclusion ground, they have no genuine prospect of being awarded the public contract, and such a prospect is an essential prerequisite for establishing legal interest.
The case concerns one of Lithuania’s largest public-private partnership (PPP) infrastructure projects in recent years, the construction of the new Šiauliai Prison and its long-term operation under a PPP arrangement. The project’s initial investment value amounted to approximately EUR 47.5 million, while the total contract value over the full partnership term is approximately EUR 56.6 million. The project envisages the construction of a modern correctional facility with capacity for around 400 inmates in the Šiauliai district, replacing the existing historic Šiauliai Prison located in the city centre. It is regarded as one of the most significant state infrastructure PPP projects in Lithuania’s correctional system.
Spi 1 is represented by the COBALT team comprising Partner and Associate Professor Doc Dr Deividas Soloveičik, Managing Associate Dovilė Jankauskytė and Senior Associate Kristina Peleckaitė.
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