PAKRUOJIS DISTRICT MUNICIPALITY CONTINUES GRANTING PRIVILEGES TO ITS COMPANY PAKRUOJO KOMUNALININKAS

The Competition Council (hereinafter – Council) found that Pakruojis District Municipality (hereinafter – Municipality) failed to meet the Council‘s obligation – create non-discriminatory conditions for undertakings willing to provide municipal waste collection and transportation services (hereinafter – Services) in Pakruojis district.

In 2012 the Council found that the Municipality authorised its municipal company UAB Pakruojo komunalininkas (hereinafter – Company) to provide the Services without a competitive procedure and, thus, discriminated against other undertakings. The Municipality did not take into account the fact that the market is highly competitive and has other undertakings capable of providing the aforementioned Services. The Council obliged the Municipality to cancel competition restricting decisions and terminate the contract concluded with its Company.

After terminating the contract of 2011, the Municipality contracted the Company in 2013 and authorised it to provide the Services till 2017. According to the Council, the privileges granted by the Municipality allowed the Company to provide the Services with no competitive pressure, while other market players in Pakruojis district where left behind with no opportunities to compete.

The Council will refer to court so that these competition restricting decisions are eliminated.

It is already the third case of such non-compliance this year – Kaunas City Municipality continued granting privileges to the municipal waste management company Kauno švara, while Trakai District Municipality – to Trakų paslaugos.