1. Rail Baltica Cross-border Procurement Experience
February 19, 2017
Thank you for the opportunity.
Cross-Border initiatives demand serious harmonization per project, as between 2 countries alone there are consistent diversities.
Our project, Rail Baltica, is a cross-border railway infrastructure project between the 3 Baltic countries Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, that is managed by myself in the Joint venture RB Rail. The project in fact also includes Poland and Finland as partners for infrastructure development from Warsaw to Helsinki.
Let me highlight key aspects & opportunities for the discussion.

2. Rail Baltica: unique procurement management challenge
Lack of project experience: cross-border & matrix
The first cross-border project for three EU Member States
Insufficient knowledge & trust between
Documentation in 4 languages
Different understanding of
EU Directives
We have 5 key areas that are a significant challenge individually and collectively to be able to deliver a common project on time and within budget, using the most appropriate resources.
1. Though the common project language is english, procurement documentation needs to be delivered in three languages – Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian – in addition to the English . This is not only time consuming, thus, increasing cost, but it demands translation experts in the field, which to a large extent are not even available.
2. This is the first cross-border project for three EU Members, not just 2, thus any complexity is multiplied by 3: from expectation management to national budgeting cycles.
3. We are on a common journey of learning where there is a lack of true experience in & understanding about cross-border project management and how matrix organizations work: for the technical project as well as for the business case at hand.
4 I should add that ours is a greenfield project for a fast conventional railway in an era when we can be deploying brand new approaches to design, construction planning, digitalization impacts. How to get the relevant knowledge with the right resources at the right time to ensure that in developing design guidelines, supply procurement, and the likes can also be built on trust?
5. Common EU directives regulated and interpreted differently per nation

3. E-procurement challenges and opportunities
Risk of losing potential bidders
Act according to the law
Availability of the procurement at current level (language)
Time & process efficiency for procurement commission
Cost-effective procurement procedure
Transparent procurement procedure
Efficient procurement procedure
Reduced administrative burden
RB Rail AS
Challenges
OPPORTUNITIES
Clearly less paper means cost effectiveness: printing, submissions costs, physical presence when bids are opened, etc.
Higher transparency of the procedure itself.
We already see higher efficiency due to better investment of resources (people & time), as well as the process itself towards publishing.
There is a reduced administrative burden: oversight, audits, access to processes, etc.
CHALLENGES (mainly for Latvian system). Estonian – working well; Lithuanian - ???
A Bidder must register in the e-procurement system before submitting bid. Some are hesitant to do so. (this should be a question of time).
It is genuinely a challenge to ensure that the e-procurement is according to current procurement LV legislation, e.g.
1) according to Public Procurement Law, security for the bid shall be submited before opening the proposals. But banks are not ready to issue bid security electronically (signed by e-signature);
2)  the bidders cannot upload bid security in the system, thus, they need to secure that the Procurement Commission receives the Bid Security original before the opening of the proposals.
Availability
1) e-procurement system is not translated fully in English, part of it is only in Latvian;
2) difficulties to create billingual documents
- Volume of work: double paper-trail (in paper and in system), system is really slowly, user unfriendly, members of the procurement commission shall spend more time for procurement. Therefore currently the system is slower and we are hoping that the Latvian procurement system & processes will be significantly improved.

4. Proposals for cross-border public procurement
Common, detailed procurement regulation
One Project Delivery Organisation
Common suppliers’ requirements and effective monitoring/enforcement system
Clarity of oversight mechanisms
One common procurement language for technical requirements
Effective management of tender appeals (not to undermine the project implementation timeline)
For efficient European Union projects, cross-border projects must be managed by one entity, one delivery organization. All other models are in my opinion more cumbersome for very many reasons. Thus, there needs to be a requirement for this in the establishment of such projects and before any funding is granted by the EU.
Do not see problem – in acting for other implementing bodies/beneficiaries. See problem, if acting against RB Rail (litigation/ conflict situation).