The Belgian soap opera ends badly for Alstom: the MEGA-CONTRATE of the CNCB (the local SNCF) of up to 3.4 billion euros for the purchase of more than 600 conventional trains to renew its fleet escapes it definitively.
As expected, the country’s state council rejected the final appeal of the French industrialist, dismissed by the SNCB for the benefit of Spanish CAF. The highest Belgian administrative jurisdiction followed the auditor’s opinion to reject the appeal in the cancellation presented by ALSTOM.
The company denounced in particular the lack of transparency in the motivations of the SNCB in its choice of CAF, as well as the evaluation method that would have changed along the way. For the State Council, “none of the criticism for which this company disputes the legality of this designation decision is serious.”
“We are disappointed with this decision and the fact that our arguments have not been taken into account. We do not want to communicate more on this issue,” Alstom said.
“None of the criticism is serious”
From now on, the choice of Spanish CAF as a “preferential offer” for this “contract of the century” must be confirmed again by the SNCB that “will now do everything so that the last step is concretized, namely the final designation.”
A first appeal to the State Council, cattle by FrenchIt had made it possible to suspend the election of CNCB and, therefore, force the Board of Directors of the Railway Company to meet again to assign the call to tenders again. And caf had been designated again causing the second reference of ALSTOM, which therefore is finally rejected.
Alstom was convinced that it was better located, in particular thanks to the map of local production in Bruges and Charleroi (a point backed by certain policies and unions) and an offer of more than 100 million euros. The head of Alstom Belgium, Bernard Belvaux, then denounced “the shocking decision” of the public railway company.
Source: BFM TV
