The aim of competition is to select the most suitable candidates in terms of reliability, expertise, efficiency and legal compliance.  At the beginning of the procedure, the project promoter publishes the contract notice in the Supplement of the Official Journal of the EU, inviting companies throughout Europe to submit their participation requests. In order to do this, a standard form is provided by the EU and it is fundamental to fill this out with all information and numbers in the following forms:

  • Short description of the performance;
  • Contract terms;
  • Admissibility of side offers;
  • Financing conditions and Securities;
  • Conditions of participation (requirements and proofs of financial and technical capacity);
  • Notes on the procedure;
  • Award criteria;
  • Final date or application deadline;
  • Reservation of cancellation if no offer is more cost-effective than the cost of self-realization

We recommend to request a supplementary information memorandum. The financing concept is also a really important matter and is worth to be mentioned in the following text.

In a sense of a competitor-friendly participation contest, the terms and conditions of participation must be as short as possible and as comprehensive as necessary. As part of the further process, references from the remaining supplier can be subsequently delivered.

The application deadline for PPP should not be less than 37 days and can be extended to 50-100 days.

Tender documents

In addition to the award publication of the application form, further award documentations have to be provided. The contract documents consist of the terms of reference and general or (eventually) special contract award conditions. Element of central importance is here the functional performance description, as the target description of the overall concept. This shows the central importance of a good preparatory work in the preceding phases. The service description shall contain a clearly defined minimum or exclusion criteria, but should also leave enough room for innovative ideas from the bidders.

The legal tender documents have proven to regulate the details of different service areas in separate project contract, such us cleaning, maintenance contract etc. This can be achieved in later stages of the operating phase with a more flexible handling, if necessary, including contract modification, without having to adjust the overall contractual design.

Documentation of the tendering proceeding

The entire procurement proceeding has to be promptly documented. The so-called “Vergabevermerk” report must state the reasons for the decision on the choice of the procedure as well as the chronological order and all other decisions previously taken during the procedure.

It is important that the awarding criteria are set with sub-criteria, before the applications and tenders are submitted. In the annex, particular requests from the bidders and connected answers also have to be documented.