Questions as company “based in parish council space” wins tender with bargain basement price

Questions have been raised over the rather bizarre situation in which a relatively new marketing company (formed in September last year) clinched an important state tender by putting in a bid 60% below the so-called base price.

In a process that has apparently been adjudicated solely on the ‘best price’ offered, Think This – Marketing, Unipessoal, Lda – based in premises of Escariz parish council in Arouca – beat ‘old hands’ in the marketing game, including Intercampus (nationally famous for its opinion polls), by presenting a proposal for just €72,001 – when the base price was €180,000.

According to Correio da Manhã today, the ‘second best price’ came in at €125,342.50.

There were a total of 10 entities in all competing in the tender put out by ANSR (the national road safety authority), but thanks to its extremely low offer, Think This got the job (which involves 15,575 surveys to be done in one of the ‘principal steps for Project Route 25 – a pioneer initiative that seeks to put Portugal at the “vanguard of autonomous mobility”).

Intercampus’ director António Salvador has said, quite frankly, that he is “shocked” by how things panned out, which he says “don’t make sense”. Price cannot be the sole reason for choosing a company, he tells CM, particularly when, in his opinion, there are doubts about that company’s capacity to comply with all the necessary specifications.

“According to the Public Contracts Code (article 71º), the fact that the winning bid was 50% below the tender’s base value — constituting an abnormally low price — would allow ANSR to require the bidder to provide written justifications,” CM adds.

But this didn’t happen.

In fact ANSR’s response to CM’s question was that the tender process was “carried out in strict compliance with the Public Contracts Code (…) there being no further comments to add on the part of ANSR.”

Jornal de Negócios has carried a shorter article, not referring to the disquiet among fellow contenders.

Like CM, Negócios said the contract is for 15,575 surveys (10,000 among the general population and 5,575 among car users), and “one of the main steps in the Route 25 project, which aims to assess the introduction and development of autonomous driving in Portugal and is supported by €34.95 million through the PRR (Plan for Recovery and Resilience Plan).

Negócios does not drill down into where Think This is based, but, according to CM, it operates “out of a space of the Junta de Freguesia (parish council) of Escariz, in Arouca”, which may be another reason why more seasoned contenders have been so taken aback.

Source: Correio da Manhã/ Negócios online

Natasha Donn

Journalist for the Portugal Resident.