(AFP / LUDOVIC MARIN)
The Council of State on Friday rejected an appeal from the Suez group against the continuation of the call for tenders for the large water market in Ile-de-France (outside Paris), ultimately won by competitor Veolia.
“The appeal of the company Suez Eau France is rejected,” he indicated in the decision that AFP consulted, considering that Suez was “not justified in requesting the annulment” of the decision taken first. proceedings by the administrative court.
On Monday, at the hearing, the public rapporteur recommended “the dismissal of the appeal”.
The call for tenders for the largest water market in France was marked last spring by a bug on the IT platform of the Ile-de-France Water Union (Sedif), which landed at Veolia confidential documents intended for Suez.
The procedure, covering a market worth 4.3 billion euros over 12 years, was then frozen for several months. The Sedif ultimately decided in October to continue the investigation on the basis of the offers received before the incident, invoking a decision of the Council of State from 2017 on another public procurement case.
Then contacted by Suez, the summary judge of the Paris administrative court found in the first instance that Sedif’s decision to continue the procedure without excluding the Veolia candidate was “not tainted by an error of assessment”.
The Council of State for its part considered that the court had not “committed an error of law” in ruling in this way, taking into account the elements in the file according to which Veolia had warned the Sedif of this computer bug. before the continuation of the procedure” and had therefore “necessarily renounced taking advantage” of the documents.
Suez took note of the decision and assured that it would continue “to use all legal avenues” likely to ensure the “preservation of its interests”.
For Sedif, the decision of the Council of State “once again confirms the regularity of the competitive bidding procedure” and “reinforces the award decision”.
The Union decided on January 25 to re-award the market to Veolia, which has held it for a century.