How can public procurement be successfully planned and organized, and later the projects themselves implemented, when we are talking about strategic national transport infrastructure facilities that are built only once every few decades or even once in a hundred years? This timely topic was discussed during the “Lithuanian Roads Forum 2026” panel discussion, where insights were also shared by Jonas Jablonskis, CEO of UAB “Fegda”.

The discussion “Megaproject Management and Implementation: Challenges and Strategies for Success” at the “Lithuanian Roads Forum 2026” was also attended by Robert Ziminski, Head of HISK, and Dr. Karolis Kačerauskas, partner at “Ellex Valiūnas” and Head of the Public Procurement and State Aid Group. The discussion was moderated by Justas Vyžintas, Head of Governance at “Rail Baltica”.

The panel addressed the most relevant issues related to megaprojects — from political expectations and ensuring long-term value for the state, to the most successful strategies for developing such projects. The discussion also covered the biggest challenges that usually accompany the implementation of major public sector infrastructure projects, and how traditional public procurement models withstand these challenges.

A procurement planning roadmap for at least 5 years is essential

J. Jablonskis, CEO of UAB “Fegda”, notes that in order to implement strategically important state projects more effectively, interinstitutional planning of such projects is first and foremost necessary. According to him, recent years have shown what happens when several massive projects are launched almost at the same time — the sector is forced to “inflate” rapidly, there is no time to prepare properly, and eventually, once a major project pauses, contractors face various risks related to survival and adapting to suddenly changed volumes of work.

“Therefore, at least a five-year procurement roadmap and clear interinstitutional planning are needed so that megaprojects are arranged consistently and not implemented simultaneously, allowing the market to plan work rationally. I am certain this is a matter of planning and agreement between institutions,” says J. Jablonskis.

According to the head of “Fegda”, interinstitutional planning of major projects would benefit everyone: businesses would have enough time to prepare, invest in equipment, assemble teams with the necessary competencies, and build supply chains — while also avoiding much of the chaos, problems, and mismatched expectations that currently accompany public procurement.

Asked whether Lithuania has sufficient competence to build high-speed railways and implement electrification projects, J. Jablonskis says that “not only do we have it — we can and we want to.”

“But here too, proper forward-looking public procurement planning is critically important. If electrification projects were divided into several parts and contractors could see that they are continuous projects, then they would purchase the necessary equipment, assemble teams, and deliver. But when you know there will be no next stage for an unknown number of years, it is not reasonable to invest in equipment for just one project,” emphasizes the head of “Fegda”.

Megaproject implementation must be led by professionals

As another extremely important component of public procurement processes — in addition to planning — J. Jablonskis highlights the need to mobilize top-level professionals for megaproject implementation.

According to him, one major weakness of public procurement processes is the lack of competence among procurement specialists: planning and implementation of public procurement for large-scale projects are often handled by mid-level professionals, which eventually has a significant negative impact across all implementation chains of the project.

“It should not be the case that we design something and only build it five years later, when prices have changed. We are talking about massive projects of strategic importance, involving the highest investments and public expectations. Of course, continuously retaining top-level professionals in the public sector may be too expensive for the state. Therefore, a much more efficient and rational path is to hire consulting teams for the implementation of a specific megaproject. Projects like Rail Baltica are built only once in a century. Considering this, it is far more rational to bring in critical competencies from outside — for procurement architecture, risk models, contract logic, independent pricing, and dispute prevention — rather than trying to solve everything using only internal resources,” shares J. Jablonskis.

A foreign supplier is not automatically a guarantee of deadlines or quality

In the public space, there is still a prevailing belief that strategic infrastructure facilities require foreign contractors. However, the CEO of UAB “Fegda” is convinced that large strategic projects should be implemented by Lithuanian contractors, not foreign ones. According to him, practice shows that a foreign supplier is not automatically a guarantee of deadlines or quality: there have been cases when selecting foreign companies caused projects to be delayed, costs to rise, and society to wait longer than planned for results.

“The question of strategic facilities is not about whether Lithuanian companies are capable of implementing them — it is more about whether the public procurement structure allows our companies to compete. I am certain that infrastructure companies operating in Lithuania are capable of implementing all strategic megaprojects, but procurement is not always structured in a way that allows these capacities to actually be used,” he states.

J. Jablonskis provides a concrete example: when a facility is presented as one single procurement object, the requirements threshold often becomes so high that only foreign suppliers can participate in such a tender. Meanwhile, if procurement is structured according to the capacities of companies operating in Lithuania, competition expands, more realistic bids emerge, and project implementation becomes more predictable.

“A good example is the procurement for Stage II of the Rūdninkai Training Area: it was planned and divided in such a way that Lithuanian companies could participate — and that indeed happened. Such solutions show that professional procurement architecture allows services to be purchased here in Lithuania. In our assessment, if procurements for strategic facilities were divided into parts and the value of a single package did not exceed approximately EUR 150 million, then all major Lithuanian infrastructure companies would be capable of carrying out such work. This provides clear benefits: real competition emerges in the market, companies can plan capacities more steadily, and project funds and taxes remain in Lithuania. In addition, by dividing the work, the likelihood of implementing the project on time increases,” emphasizes Jonas Jablonskis, CEO of UAB “Fegda”.