Bidding appeal could delay Qatari deal, says finance minister

AN APPEAL against the winning bid in the tender to evaluate the land earmarked for the construction of a luxury complex in Nicosia could delay the project, a joint venture between Cyprus and Qatar, the finance minister said yesterday. “It is something that could delay the whole procedure,” Charilaos Stavrakis said. “I hope we do not end up in this procedure because there would be unnecessary delay on a project worth hundreds of millions of euros, which would be to the benefit of the Cypriot economy.” Landtourist Valuations Ltd is considering appealing against the Finance Ministry’s decision to choose the services of Antonis Loizou & Associates in the crucial stage of negotiations with the Qataris to find a compromise on how much the land earmarked for development is really worth. Landtourist said the winning bidder submitted an offer of €4,800, which it considered “unusually low”, compared to that of Landtourist and other bidders which was around €30,000. According to the letter, the other bids also floated around the €30,000 mark. The company argues that based on Cypriot and EU law, a review of the winning bid is required, which if found to be artificially low, should then be excluded from the process. The letter also argues that the Loizou bid should have been ruled out from the start as the bidder had already given a detailed valuation in a number of press articles some months earlier. Stavrakis said no official letter appealing the procedure has been received so far. “Our evaluator has been chosen through a legal tender procedure followed by the state,” the minister said. He added however that the huge delays caused by such appeals concerned the government who was looking into making changes to prevent people from appealing to justice with so much ease. Last April, the government signed an agreement with a state-owned Qatari company to carry out the 50:50 joint-venture project. The sticking point remains the value of the land, which determines the level of the state’s contribution to the venture.

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