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Vilnius Mayor Remigijus Šimašius said during the BFK meeting that if the municipality loses the court, it will return to the agreement with the government and seek to implement the project together.
“If the court finds that we are right, we go back to the fact that we have signed mutual commitments with the Government. We hope that the Government does not change that decision. Then we move on to the date of signing. As far as we know, the private partner is ready to realize this, “R. Šimašius said on Thursday, adding that he did not understand why the VPN had ordered to terminate the process and did not propose to amend the agreement.
The president of BFK, Mykolas Majauskas, asked the mayor about the sports museum and the kindergarten: “Did they arise because of the possibility of co-financing with European money? If we did a project of this type from scratch, would we build or finance the kindergarten or museum with the municipality’s own capacity? “
R.Šimašius admitted that these objects were really necessary due to the need for funds from the European Union to make the complex multifunctional. However, according to him, the kindergarten and community center on the site are significant, but plans to install a sports museum raise questions. The Ministry of Education, Science and Sports would be in charge of the management of this facility, but the latter has no concept of this facility.
“The only object in this place that is probably artificially stretched is the sports museum. But the facilities, in any case, are quite universal for other things as well,” said the mayor of Vilnius.
Photo by Sigismund Gedvila / 15min / Remigijus Šimašius
R.Šimašius told BFK that he did not believe that the project, being complex, would narrow the circle of potential service providers.
You don’t see the concession contract
VPN Director Darius Vedrickas noted that Vilnius Municipality’s understanding and service of what a concession is was fundamentally different. According to VPT, in this case all construction risk would be borne by the public sector and not the private sector.
“In the case of a concession, it is the private sector that finances the construction of the infrastructure and there is always, and there must be, the risk that a private entity will not recover its investment in public infrastructure. In this case, it is the public sector that covers the costs of both the multifunctional complex and the creation of new assets through annual payments, in addition to reimbursing the costs of services in the kindergarten or cultural education center.
This means that all the risk of construction financing falls on the public sector ”, added Sonata Vaitukaitytė, Head of the Legal Department of the institution.
Photo by Sigismund Gedvila / 15min / Public Procurement Office
According to her, although the municipality explains that formally the public sector does not take over the construction company’s credit, they will be covered by the state through established payments.
“Several public-private partnerships have been shaken up here, and now it’s not entirely clear what should have been here,” he said.
S.Vaitukaitytė pointed out that the VPN does not question the political will to implement the project, but in his opinion, if it is to be done, it must be done legally. In this case, the Office does not see a concession contract because the State would have to finance essentially all construction costs.
“We don’t see an association in this place,” he explained.
Other projects are threatened
The vice president of Seimas, a former deputy mayor of Vilnius Vytautas Mitalas, noted that it was not clear at the moment what a concession was.
“I don’t see if, for example, building a police station under a concession is really such a different shared risk between the private investor and the state when there is simply a client who orders the construction of the commission. But for some reason it is a concession and the stadium is not a concession. <...> In the face of uncertainty about what is a concession and what is not, we will prevent many complex projects from taking place. This is the first problem bigger than the stadium ”, he pointed out.
R.Šimašius exaggerated the situation at the BFK meeting: “It reminds me that foresters and the municipality got together to count all the trees in order to better care, but they did not determine whether a particular tree is a fir or a fir, so it needs to be cut. “
Povilas Poderskis, director of the municipal administration of the city of Vilnius, explained in the committee that there is still room for negotiations with a private investor. However, if it is to abandon an object such as a nursery, a new contest must be announced.
“But if we want to renegotiate or try to transfer risks, put new terms in the contract, then we could go back to the negotiations. I understand that wish, but it would be better to check how many documents are written.” Probably, all the cases of life are planned “, He said.
Photo by Saulius Žiūra / Povilas Poderskis
The court will issue a verdict
BNS announced that the Lithuanian Court of Appeal should announce a decision on Thursday in a dispute between the VPN and the Vilnius authorities for more than 150 million. EUR for a national stadium concession tender.
Last December, the VPT rejected the municipality’s offer to reach an amicable settlement and appealed to the Court of Appeal against an unfavorable judgment of the Vilnius Regional Court last November, in which the court declared the VPT’s order to uphold illegal. the national stadium competition is over.
According to the district court, VPT did not have sufficient grounds to conclude that the project did not meet the characteristics of a concession and that the concession was therefore illegal.
Following the district court’s decision, the Vilnius authorities proposed that the VPT reach a friendly settlement, but the latter’s then acting president, J. Petkuvienė, told BNS that the peace treaty was a “less considered option” .
Concession agreement not convinced
After several years of bidding, the municipality planned to sign a concession contract with Axis’s winning industries and the financier of the Baltcap project in March. This was supported by both the municipal council and the government.
However, in March, the VPN did not allow the signing of the concession contract, the signature was suspended at the request of the Financial Crimes Service (FNTT) and the Attorney General’s Office.
Complex with 15 thousand. the construction of the stadium and other facilities would have cost about 93.2 million. However, after payments are spread over 25 years, a total of almost € 156 million is planned to be credited to the BaltCap fund. euros.
Under a joint agreement between the municipality, the builders, the financiers and the Government, the complex would be managed by Kauno Arena for more than two decades. It was expected to be built in 2023.
Law enforcement agencies sought to determine whether the increase in the value of the concession after the negotiations was reasonable and lawful.
VPT stated in May that the concession contract should have separated state and municipal risks, but after changing the financing model of the project, they had all the risks, so the expected signing of agreements with Icor concerns Industrias Axis not it can be considered a concession contract.
Following the VPN commitment and the analysis of alternatives, the Government announced that there were several possibilities to build a football stadium in Vilnius, but indicated that the idea of a National Stadium was closer to that.
In addition to the stadium, the national stadium complex also includes an athletics stadium, a sports complex with gymnastics, handball, volleyball, boxing, basketball courts, a community and cultural educational center with a library, a 300-seat kindergarten and a sports museum. .
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