European Procurement
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European Procurement is a centralized system of notification of public procurement of all supplies, services, and works by government bodies in the European Union (formerly known as the EEC) has been in existence since before 1992, as seen in Directive 92/50/EEC. It is estimated that up to 16% of the region's GDP falls within this category.[1]
The procedure is intended to be fully transparent with the intention of creating a free and competitive Europe-wide market. The rules state that for projects above a certain threshhold (about £100,000K [2]) a contract notice in a particular form must dispatched to the OJEC S-Series, now known as OJEU where it is published. Nowadays the information is available immediately on the web from Tenders Electronic Daily.
The buyer can advertise the contract more widely, but cannot do so before it has notifying OJEC, and is forbidden from including information that isn't given there.
After the prescribed date, the bids as opened and assessed, and the "economically most advantageous tender" is chosen. The award must also be reported in OJEC.
The system is under constant revision to avoid misuse. Rejected bidders are up to ten days to challenge a decision, and the European Commission routinely acts to police infringements.[3]
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[edit] Framework agreements
In recent years there has shift in the system to allow it to handle the awarding of framework agreements. These are not in themselves procurement contracts, but they set out the terms of such contract with suppliers in advance over a set time.[4] For example, if dozens of independent schools in the UK all wish to buy computer equipment, Becta is able to award a framework agreement to a set of companies so that, if they buy from the list, they don't need to go through the full European Procurement process.
The current regulation in the UK is published in Statutory Instrument 2006 No. 5 (section 19)The Public Contracts Regulations 2006
[edit] Procedures
There are several different procedures available for public authorities. These include the Open, Restricted and Negotiated procedures. Each of these procedures sets its own limitations on the procuring authority, which must be considered when choosing the appropriate procedure.
