Construction contracts. At the current stage it is not clear to the Authority how the prices of the construction contracts transferred to Mesta AS have been fixed. The Authority observes that the Norwegian authorities have explained that the original prices of construc- tion contracts resulted from “negotiated” prices and have been fixed on the basis of the price level resulting from submitting other construction contracts to public tenders. The authorities have also stated that the price of construction contracts was subject to an ex-post adjustment mechanism in order to take account of fiscal requirements. It seems that this mechanism involved adjusting prices so as to ensure a deficit if a profit had been made in previous years (and vice versa). According to the authorities this price was based on market terms. Finally, the authorities have stated that at the point in time of the transfer of contracts to Mesta AS the contracts were adjusted to take into account new fiscal and regulatory requirements. However, it is not clear whether those adjustments changed the actual price of the contracts. The Authority finds reason to question whether the prices in the construction contracts transferred to Mesta AS reflected market price. Hence, the Authority requests the Norwegian authorities to clarify the manner in which the prices of the construction contracts transferred to Mesta AS have actually been fixed. In this regard it would be helpful if the authorities could clarify, in particular, to which extent the price level resul- ting from parallel public tenders have played in fixing the prices. The Authority would also appreciate it if the Norwegian autho- rities could confirm that the price at which the construction contracts were transferred to Mesta AS is about NOK 2 960 million, and, in the negative, provide the correct amount.
