A Co Clare engineering firm has sued Mayo County Council for damages arising from the company's failure, despite submitting the lowest tender, to get the contract for construction of the Knock-Claremorris by-pass.
Mr Andrew Whelan, a director of Clare Civil Engineering Ltd, Quay Road, Clarecastle, said the company submitted a tender price of £7.4 million in April 2000.
His then solicitor wrote to the county council the following July stating that the firm had been given to understand that its tender had been passed over and asking for reasons.
The council had replied that the Clare company had failed to comply with instructions to tenderers in relation to inserting a price for the provision of "progress photographs".
In an affidavit, Mr Whelan said the bill of quantities had contained hundreds of items and his solicitors had pointed out to the council that it was absurd to disqualify a tenderer for failing to insert a rate for what were trivial amounts in the context of the tender price.
The amounts at issue were less than .0001 per cent of the tender price. If deducted from the price, the Clare company's tender would still have been lower than the next lowest tender by over £295,000, he said. In August 2000 the council said it had signed a contract with Frank Harrington Ltd.
Mr Whelan's solicitors had written to the council in October 2000 claiming that the Clare firm's tender had been about £300,000 below that of Frank Harrington Ltd. In the circumstances the Clare company claimed that the award to Frank Harrington Ltd was in breach of EU directives and also "an unjustifiable waste of public funds".
The council denied it had failed to comply with EU directives and nor had it breached the principles of openness and transparency. The hearing continues.