Finland – Construction-related services – Hintan vesilaitoslaajennuksen rakennuttaja- ja valvontapalveluiden hankinta

A new wastewater treatment plant is planned near the Hintan water treatment plant in Oulu. The estimated total cost of the project is approximately 60 M€, with construction expected to start by the end of 2027. Construction is estimated to be completed in 2029, and the facility will be handed over for operational use in 2030, after which it will be commissioned. The expansion project for the Hintan surface water treatment plant requires the services of a construction consultant and monitoring resources in various technical fields. The consultants will assist the client in the design phase, during which the consultants will review and comment on the implementation plan, and help the client tender for contractors for preparatory works. The procurement procedure for this consulting package (construction consultant and supervisors) is a restricted procedure. The contract period is until 1.6.2030 +1v option period. The client decides alone on the use of the option. Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine since February 2022 has caused a fundamental change in the security environment. Since then, serious sabotage activities have increased against critical infrastructure in the EU member states (including Norway), such as the disruption of submarine cables and pipelines, disruption of freight traffic, arson attacks on industrial and/or commercial buildings, damage to rail traffic, break-ins at water treatment plants, data breaches and service disruption attacks on public authorities and servers, including unspecified drone flights over critical infrastructure areas. This change has exacerbated the threat landscape and requires special preparedness. Due to this change in the security environment and climate, the City of Oulu is tightening the handling and sharing of security-, preparedness- and maintenance-sensitivity-related information in its procurements, in order to protect the safety of the population and the critical infrastructure owned and managed by the state and the municipality, which ensures the safety of the population. This also includes physical access to critical infrastructure. In addition to public procurement, the security perspective also includes the critical examination and, if necessary, prevention of real estate transactions and leasing, when the party in question is a country that has been declared hostile to Finland by Finland, or a country that Finland's security authorities consider capable of conducting hostile influence, operations in the vicinity of critical infrastructure. This poses an obviously high risk to public safety. This also applies to the service providers, responsible parties and staff of the procurements. The service operations of this procurement are targeted at critical infrastructure (e.g. district heating, water, electricity, telecommunications cables, lighting, street lights, port areas, etc.) the damage or destruction of which endangers the daily safety and maintenance security of approximately 220,000 residents (including businesses). In the event of damage, there may be a serious threat to national security due to the large population and geographical concentration. Some of the information about the above-mentioned critical infrastructure has been partially removed and/or obscured from the internet and public domain for security reasons since the start of Russia's war of aggression in 2022. These details are to be kept secret in the future (Publicity Act 24§ 7). Due to the above security, preparedness and maintenance security reasons, a mandatory security condition is used in this procurement. The service provider's discretionary exclusion grounds and the immediate termination of the contract Procurement Unit requires that the service provider, its responsible parties and staff are reliable (loyalty obligation) and secure actors, whose home and location are in the EU and EEA area. The actors may not represent a country of citizenship that has been declared hostile to Finland, or such a country, if the European Union Council finds that the country in question is waging a war of aggression and violating the independence and sovereignty of another country, which may pose a threat to Finland's national security. Security clearances will be used as necessary to verify this security condition. The condition must be verified before any classified information is shared in the tender process and/or before the procurement decision is made and the procurement contract is concluded. The security clearance of the staff working at the site will be verified by security clearances as necessary, and they will also be required to sign a security and photography waiver before starting their actual work. The security condition imposed on the service provider must be in force for the entire duration of the procurement contract. If there is a change in the ownership, responsible parties and staff of the service provider during the procurement contract, which jeopardises this security condition, the service provider is obliged to notify the procurement unit of the change before it takes effect. The Procurement Unit will investigate the nature and effects of the change in the best manner it deems appropriate and by hearing the service provider, and will take the necessary legal follow-up measures. The Procurement Unit reserves the right to terminate the procurement contract immediately if the service provider's security condition is no longer in force. The selected service provider commits to signing the security and photography waiver even before handling classified material. The staff working at the site commit to signing a personal security and photography waiver. The security condition also applies to main contractors.