Uli Galinka and Asaf Cohen-Pur represented Arad Ltd. in an administrative petition filed to annul its winning bid in a tender issued by the Mei Shikma Water Corporation for the replacement of water meters with remote-reading meters and the provision of related services.
The petition was filed by the second-ranked qualified bidder, who claimed that Arad does not meet a threshold requirement of the tender – namely, that the bidder must hold a valid trade license issued by the Ministry of Communications – on the grounds that the trade license attached to Arad’s bid belongs to Arad Technologies, a wholly-owned (100%) subsidiary of Arad Ltd.
Following a hearing and oral arguments, the court held in its judgment that while the petitioner’s argument was “compelling,” the specific circumstances of the case warranted acceptance of Arad’s position – namely, that by virtue of the trade license being held by a wholly-owned subsidiary, both the purpose of the tender and the purpose of the threshold requirement mandating that the trade license be in the name of the contracting bidder are fulfilled.
Accordingly, the court dismissed the petition and upheld Arad’s winning bid in the tender.
