Enhedslisten’s newly elected transport spokesperson, Jette Gottlieb, would like quality to be given higher weight when the state offers major construction projects. As Femernreport could tell yesterday, Spanish Elecnor won the TPS contract for a new substation for the Fehmarntunnel with an offer that was eight per cent cheaper than the competing bid. In return, Siemens-Aarsleff promised in their offer that the plant would have a nine per cent longer life and higher energy efficiency. It’s not good enough, says Jette Gottlieb:
Quality must be weighted higher
– I basically think that quality should be weighted higher. I don’t have the technical insight to know if it should be 60 per cent or some other number, but it’s not always the cheapest that’s the best, she says.
Jette Gotlieb would like to raise the matter in the Danish Parliament, but first, she has to land her new role as spokesperson:
The contract is binding
– It probably won’t be the first thing I bring up. I only just became a transport spokesperson yesterday. But I just have to say “better luck next time”. The contract has been awarded, and it is binding, she states.
Enhedslist’s transport spokesperson is also not at all thrilled that there are now two Spanish Fehmarn contractors involved in the same cartel case in Spain:
Ultra-worrying
– It is ultra-worrying. We do not know how it all went with those contracts, but the matter has not been finally decided. It is a reasonable principle that everyone is innocent until proven guilty. I am a bit “on one side and on the other”, says Jette Gottlieb.
Not fixed
However, she has no doubt that there is too much focus on the lowest price. As a starting point, there is political support for the guidelines according to which the contracts are tendered, but how the guidelines are managed is up to the provider: – They are guidelines, but they are not set in stone. But you should honestly look more at quality and sustainability, concludes Jette Gottlieb.
