Estonia, Legislation, Tourism, Transport

The court said it was illegal of the city government not to organize a procurement.

The contract to operate a sightseeing train in the Old City was put on a public auction by an order of the elder of the city district of Central Tallinn in August 2017. Two companies, FunnyPark OU and OU Rosemarie, filed their offers in time, and the tender committee chose the offer of FunnyPark OU as the winner based on the point score.

A protest filed by OU Rosemarie with the government of the city district of Central Tallinn was not granted by the elder of the city district, and in September FunnyPark OU was declared the winner of the auction for the five-year contract.

After OU Rosemarie had contested the outcome, the city government on Nov. 15, 2017 annulled the decision and ordered the city's transport board to set out, in collaboration with the city's enterprise board and the government of Central Tallinn, objective and transparent criteria for the provision of the sightseeing train service and to present it in the form of a draft regulation to the city government for adoption on Jan. 10.

The public procurement dispute settlement committee in the meantime turned down an application of FunnyPark OU to have the orders of the city government and the city district elder of Central Tallinn annulled.

Although the city of Tallinn did not determine the total value of the contract, it set the starting price at 1,085 euros a month and the term of the agreement at five years. Multiplied by 48, the estimated value of the contract is hence 52,080 euros, which is more than the 40,000-euro limit starting from which a public procurement has to be held.

In accordance with the Public Procurement Act, the basis for calculation of the estimated value of a public service contract, in the case of a contract with a term longer than 48 months, is the monthly value of provision of the service multiplied by 48.