Redundant tenders put Turkish State Railways at chronic financial loss

The Turkish State Railways has accumulated over 15 billion liras in losses over the past decade, a result of their history of issuing tenders inefficiently. Most recently, the state issued a tender to two companies that failed to complete the same job for a 2018 tender, allocating twice the funds and twice the length to the project.

Friday January 08 2021 01:39 pm

Bahadır Özgür / DUVAR

The Turkish State Railways' (TCDD) 2.6 billion liras in losses during 2019 has brought the company's total losses over the past decade to 17.3 billion liras, but this is not suprising considering TCDD's history of redundant tenders, the latest of which was signed on Jan. 7.

A "completion" tender was opened on Dec. 16, 2020 for the Gebze-Köseköy railway in Istanbul, meaning that the state was once again opening up funding for a job they had already allocated funds for, but that the company failed to complete the project.

The completion tender allocated 345.8 million Turkish liras for the job and estimated a 600 day duration, which was accepted and signed for 323.3 million liras by Uğursal Electric and Abu Construction, the same company that the job was originally given to in 2018 for half the price and less than half the time.

The company had already asked to extend the project duration, but failed to complete the work in 190 days, the daily Cumhuriyet reported on June 10, 2020.

"TCCD is giving them 323 million liras and 600 days, even though they failed to complete the job in 190 days for 30 million liras. How can the TCDD not be at a loss when they keep giving the same job to the same company for more money?"