Estonia, Latvia, Port, Transport

"We didn't have any illusions about the procurement's success and therefore the outcome is not a surprise," deputy municipality mayor Kristiina Maripuu told Saarte Haal.

She added that interest in the procurement actually was demonstrated from Estonia and Latvia alike. At the same time, also the question about the rationale for staging such tender in a  situation where a similar search for a potential operator failed a year ago, and the coronavirus definitely has made things worse in the meantime, is also justified, according to the deputy mayor. 

Maripuu said that staging the new tender was nevertheless justified, as in the current situation nearby countries are considerably more preferred as travel destinations. 

"Unfortunately, the hectic situation that we are in now is making everybody cautious, also the ship operators," Maripuu said.

She explained that relaunch of the ferry link is set forth as a goal in the municipality's development plan, the development strategy of the county as well as the agreement on the past merger of Saaremaa's municipalities, but also in several other documents. Hence a new discussion is necessary on whether and how to move on. 

"Perhaps it is a question in its own right that maybe the whole set of terms of reference needs to be reconsidered," Maripuu said.

Previously, a tender to find an operator for the ferry service between the port of Montu on Saaremaa island and Ventspils in Latvia's Courland region failed in October 2019.

"What the procurement told us is that there is no one interested even in a situation where the public sector would pay the costs," Karl Tiitson, transport adviser at the Saaremaa municipality, said at the time. According to Tiitson, the procurement was as simple as possible, without excessive conditions and rather very biased towards the operator. 

"We would have paid all the costs and the shipper would have been the one imposing the fares and leaving the whole ticket income to itself," Tiitson said in October 2019.

Work on a plan to reopen the ferry service between Montu and Ventspils started in Saaremaa in 2017. On the demand of the Center Party, a direct grant in the amount of 400,000 euros for dredging works at Montu harbor, a holding of Mihkel Undrest, was written into the state budget for 2018. At the same time, Undrest was preparing to take over as the head of the Saaremaa region of the Center Party. While opponents described the move as political corruption, then Minister of Economic Affairs and Infrastructure Kadri Simson called it a "special case," the regional newspaper said.

The last of the works to be completed by the company Montu Sadam OU was the refurbishment of the passenger hall of the harbor and replacement of the furniture in it, which was concluded by Dec. 15 of last year.

"That works at the port have been completed and the port is ready is indeed a prerequisite for the service to start. And I'm absolutely certain that this service will start," Mihkel Undrest told Saarte Haal in October 2019. "A second tender will be staged, and there's every possibility to stage a third tender as well," he added.