A tender committee disqualified a bidder due to concerns about a conflict of interest without considering possible alternatives to mitigate the apparent conflict.
The Administrative Court accepted the bidder’s petition and ordered the cancellation of the tender committee’s decision, returning the matter to the committee for reconsideration. In managing the tender process, the authority must adhere to principles of reasonableness, fairness, and equality. The rule prohibiting conflicts of interest is not absolute, and a proper balance must be struck between it and other important public interests, such as increasing competition and the number of participants in the tender, protecting freedom of occupation, and more.
In this case, the tender committee had concerns about a potential conflict of interest regarding the bidder. However, instead of discussing possible alternatives that would allow the bidder to participate (such as implementing a conflict-of-interest mitigation arrangement), the committee chose to disqualify the bidder outright.
As a result, the matter is being sent back to the tender committee, which must examine the possibility of establishing a conflict-of-interest arrangement before making a new decision regarding the tender results.
For full disclosure, the bidder in this case was represented by Yair Aloni, Attorney from the law firm Afik & Co.
Published in Legal Channel 432 05.02.2025 Afik & Co. https://he.afiklaw.com/
To read the verdict, Case No. 5734-11-21, Omar Bitar v. Hani Duik
