On 2 May 2017, authorised by the towns of Kemi and Tornio and the municipalities of Keminmaa and Simo, the joint municipal authority of the Länsi-Pohja Hospital District published a contract notice seeking a partner for the provision of social and healthcare services. On 17 November 2017, the board of the joint municipal authority of the Hospital District made a decision under which it selected Mehiläinen to be its cooperative partner.
In May 2018 and February 2019, after the agreement had been signed, the customers and Mehiläinen negotiated over changes to the agreement which, at an annual level, amounts to EUR 60 million. According to the municipalities, such changes resulted from errors made in calculations and from cost adjustments. In April 2019, the board of the joint municipal authority approved the changes that had been made to the procurement agreement and agreed on in the negotiations. Under the new agreement, the changes made to the liabilities of the agreement led to the total price paid for the services being reduced in relation to the original agreement concluded in 2017.
FCCA found that the procurement agreement had been materially changed from the original. A new, more limited procurement, for example, might have attracted providers that now decided not to participate in the competitive tendering. This being the case, the procurement unit erred in changing the procurement agreement without arranging a new competitive tendering.
In its decision, FCCA also found that already in 2015, before the agreement had been signed, changes to it had been made that were in breach of the Public Contracts Act. Furthermore, FCCA found that the procurement unit had published an incorrect contract notice of the procurement.
Read the FCCA decision here (in Finnish)
Further information: Senior Specialist Anni Vanonen, tel. +358 (0)29 505 3445, firstname.lastname@kkv.fi