A CONSTRUCTION company whose tender for the £6.2 million Ballinrobe sewage disposal scheme was rejected by Mayo County Council had failed to establish that the council had exceeded its powers, the High Court decided yesterday.
SIAC Construction Limited, Monastery Road, Clondalkin, Dublin, had claimed that the council had failed to accept the most economically advantageous tender, which it had submitted.
The company claimed that the reasons advanced by the council for the rejection of its tender were not valid reasons. They were capricious and unreasonable and the council had exceeded its powers.
Ms Justice Laffoy, however, said the court's function was to determine whether SIAC had established that the council's decision plainly and unambiguously flew in the face of fundamental reason and common sense. SIAC had not discharged that onus and was, therefore, not entitled to the reliefs sought.
In February 1992, the council advertised in the national newspapers inviting tenders from civil engineering contractors for carrying out civil engineering works required for the sewage disposal scheme in Ballinrobe.
The advertisement stipulated that the lowest or any tender need not necessarily be accepted.
SIAC's tender was the lowest at £5.3 million.
SIAC did not pursue any remedy which would have had the effect of suspending or setting aside the contract with Mr Pat Mulcair, Ballysheedy, Co Limerick, who had the second lowest tender at £5.5 million and who was awarded the contract.
Instead, it sought to establish that the council had infringed community and national law in not accepting its tender and maintained it was entitled to damages for that infringement.