Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
2.11.2 Step 2: Pre-qualification stage
Interested parties must have (at least) 37 days from the date of dispatch of the contract
notice, within which to notify the contracting authority that they wish to be invited to
tender, see regulation 16(3) and regulation 16(5). However, that limit can be reduced
further if the award notice has been sent electronically or where the minimum time
limit is rendered impractical by reason of urgency. See as follows
:
•
regulation 16(5): where the contract notice is submitted by electronic means in
accordance with Annex VIII of the Directive, the time limit may be reduced by
seven days;
•
regulation 16(6)(a): a time limit of not less than 15 days from dispatch of the OJEU
Contract Notice for reasons of urgency;
•
regulation 16(6)(b): a time limit of not less than 10 days where the contract notice
has been submitted by electronic means in accordance with regulation 16(5) and
compliance with the minimum time limit of 37 days is rendered impractical for
reasons of urgency.
The contracting authority must select tenderers in accordance with regulations 23-26
of the Regulations. An economic operator can only be excluded from the group of
economic operators from which a contracting authority is to select those to be invited
to tender, on the grounds for exclusion set out in regulation 23 (such as insolvency or
conviction of a criminal offence), or if the economic operator fails to satisfy minimum
standards of economic and financial standing or technical or professional ability, see
regulation 16(7).
he number of persons which the contracting authority can invite to tender must be
sufficient to ensure genuine competition and must at least be equal to any minimum
number which may have been specified in the contract notice, see regulation 16(10).
Where there is a sufficient number of economic operators suitable to be invited to
tender, the contracting authority may limit the number which it intends to invite, but
thecontractnoticemusthavespeciiedtheobjectiveandnon-discriminatorycriteria
which would be applied in so doing, and must also have specified the minimum num-
ber (which shall be not less than five) and (where appropriate) the maximum number
of economic operators which the contracting authority intends to invite to tender.
No price or other bidding indications may be asked for at this stage, nor considered
if voluntarily provided by an economic operator. The criteria used for the selection
of tenderers do not apply to the award of a public contract. In pre-qualification, the
contracting authority is selecting tenderers whereas after pre-qualification and during
the tender stage it is evaluating tenders. This is an important distinction to maintain
during public procurements.
2.11.3 Step 3: 3:The tender period
hoseselectedtotenderbythecontractingauthoritywillusuallybesentaformalinvi-
tation to tender (or 'ITT') by the contracting authority which must be accompanied
