Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2019-11-26
Buyer: Bergen Kommune
Country: NO
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Contract award without prior publication
CPV classification: 90913200

Technical requirements: Bergen Vann KF operates the municipal water and sewage facilities in Bergen and Os Municipalities. The organisation must ensure good and satisfactory water supply and good and environmentally correct sewage treatment. The organisation has approx. 152 man-labour years and the turnover is approx. 299 000 000 NOK per annum.
Bergen Vann KF is a municipal company in Bergen Municipality. Bergen Vann KF is currently localised in Spelhaugen 22 and at numerous water treatment and sewage treatment facilities. The contracting authority reserves the right to carry out supplier audits.
The procurement concerns the hire of an unmanned cleaning service for tunnel basins for drinking water.
Contracting authorities: Bergen Vann KF, Trondheim Municipality, Oslo Municipality, Bærum Municipality and Asker Municipality.
This notice is to inform suppliers that we intend to enter into a framework agreement without a contest with Giertsen Vannteknologi AS for the hire of unmanned cleaning services for long tunnel basins for drinking water.
The procurement concerns the hire of unmanned cleaning services for tunnel basins for drinking water.
Many municipalities use rock tunnels for transferring ready treated drinking water. In many cases these also function as elevated basins. Due to their design and size (large volume), the current speed in the tunnel basins is very low. Particles and humus that slip through the water treatment process deposits in the tunnels. This can lead to unwanted biological activity in the sludge. There is also an aesthetic problem with sludge in the basin for treated drinking water.
Traditional manual cleaning with emptying and drying makes the operation very time consuming, especially as regards geological assessments and protection work to ensure the personnel's safety. This often leads to long stoppages, and, thereby, less secure water supply during these periods. In some cases it is not possible to drain the tunnel basins, as the basins must be in continual operation in order to maintain supplies.
— loose accumulated sludge from surfaces, particularly the bottom, and transport the sludge out, e.g., together with small stones that have fallen down, sand and gravel,
A market survey has been carried out in Finland, Sweden, Scotland, Germany and Austria. The intention was to clarify whether there were any suppliers who could provide such services.
A market survey has also been carried out on patents within the industry. It showed that there is no patented technology within the stated requirements specification.
We have previously carried out a market analysis and a market dialogue to examine whether there were actors in the market. We did not find any, so we announced a design contest in 2014.
IKON Norway — later W.Giertsen Vannteknologi AS — won this contest, and has since then developed a machine and a service that are suitable for the job. The machine must be ready for testing at the turn of the year 2019/2020.
In order to be able to sign a contract with W.Giertsen Vannteknologi AS, there must only be one supplier in the market according to our assessment. We have, therefore, examined the market by contacting several national and international contracting authorities. We have not identified other suppliers who can provide what we need.
We believe we have the legal basis to enter into a contract without a contest in accordance with the Utilities Regulations §9-3 letter b) No 2, so that we can announce a voluntary ex-ante transparency notice in accordance with §17-5.


Winner: Bergen Tingrett