Tutorial

Operating Entities: CAs and EOs

eProcurement.System toolkit based on OCDS 1.1 and, according to standard, it is required (and enough) to describe any Legal Entity using standardized ‘Organization’ object. Such data-set permits to operate and create data by such organization. But since toolkit as such covers more wide range of process and needs more data to be collected for a range of different purposes (starting from pre-selection and, for example, prediction of conflicts of interest on the early stages up to issuing of valid electronic contract and its execution) it should be clarified that more data-fields for specific Legal Entity (either CA or EO) should be extracted on different stages of operating or once - centralized on registration stage.

Extended ‘Organization’ model

For the needs of a more detailed identification of the organization, as well as the disclosure of data of such an organization for the purpose of global disclosure of information about the contract process or its parts, additional classification data, public registries data and so on shall be recorded. In particular, in the electronic procurement system in the Republic of Moldova for the preparation of an electronic contract, a whole set of such data for the selected supplier has to be provided along with standard data-set collected according to ‘Organization’ object.

For Economic Operator

Initial profile (registration of bid)

Attribute

OCDS attribute

Default

A

Entity Role

roles

supplier, auto-generated

B

Entity Short Name

name

C

Entity National identifier

Identifier according to IDNO register

C

1

Register code

identifier.scheme

MD-IDNO

C

2

Identifier

identifier.id

C

3

Legal Name

identifier.legalName

D

Entity Legal Address

D

1

Country

D

1

1

Classifier code

address.addressDetails.country.scheme

iso-alpha2

D

1

2

Identifier

address.addressDetails.country.id

D

1

3

Description

address.addressDetails.country.description

D

2

Locality

D

2

1

Classifier code

address.addressDetails.locality.scheme

CUATM

D

2

2

Identifier

address.addressDetails.locality.id

D

2

3

Description

address.addressDetails.locality.description

D

3

Region

D

3

1

Classifier code

address.addressDetails.region.scheme

MD-CUATM

D

3

2

Identifier

address.addressDetails.region.id

D

3

3

Description

address.addressDetails.region.description

D

4

Postal Code

address.postalCode

D

5

Street Address

address.streetAddress

Complete profile (contract preparation)

Attribute

OCDS attribute

Default

E

Type of supplier

details.typeOfSupplier

F

Classification of scale

details.scale

H

Main economic activities

details.mainEconomicActivities[]

I

Legal form of organization

I

1

Classifier code

details.legalForm.scheme

MD-CFOJ

I

2

Identifier

details.legalForm.id

I

3

Description

details.legalForm.description

J

State registration details

J

1

Date of registration

details.permits.validityPeriod.startDate

J

2

State registry no

details.permits.id

J

3

Register code

details.permits.scheme

MD-SRLE

K

Related Entities

k

1

Parent Entities

K

1

1

Register code

K

1

2

Identifier

k

1

3

Description

K

2

Branches

K

2

1

Register code

K

2

2

Identifier

K

2

3

Description

K

3

Consortiums, Unions, etc

K

3

1

Register code

K

3

2

Identifier

K

3

3

Description

L

Related Personnels

L

1

Authority

L

1

1

Title

persone.title

L

1

2

Full Name

persone.name

L

1

3

Business function

L

1

3

1

Function

L

1

3

1

1

code

persone.businessFunction.type

authority

L

1

3

1

2

description

persone.businessFunction.jobTitle

L

1

3

2

Period of validity

persone.businessFunction.period

L

1

3

3

Proxy legal basis

L

1

3

3

1

id

persone.businessFunction.document.id

L

1

3

3

2

url

persone.businessFunction.document.uri

L

1

3

3

3

name

persone.businessFunction.document.title

L

1

4

Identification number

L

1

4

1

Register code

persone.identifier.scheme

MD-IDNP

L

1

4

2

Identifier

persone.identifier.id

L

1

4

3

Description

persone.identifier.description

L

2

Authorized Representative

L

2

1

Full name

contactPoint.name

L

2

2

E-mail

contactPoint.email

L

2

3

Telephone

contactPoint.telephone

M

Permits and licenses

M

1

Register code

details.permits.scheme

MD-SRL

M

2

Identifier

details.permits.id

M

3

Description

details.permits.description

M

4

Details

M

4

1

Issued by

details.permits.permitDetails.issuedBy

M

4

2

Period of validity

details.permits.permitDetails.validityPeriod

M

4

3

Issued thought

details.permits.permitDetails.economicActivityReference

N

VAT status of organization

N

1

Register code

additionalIdentifiers.scheme

MD-VAT

N

2

Identifier

additionalIdentifiers.id

O

Bank Reference

O

1

Bank Name

details.bankAccount.bankName

O

2

Bank code

O

2

1

Register Code

details.bankAccount.identifier.scheme

MD-BNM

O

2

2

Identifier

details.bankAccount.identifier.id

O

3

Details (branch num, etc)

details.bankAccount.description

O

4

Bank address

O

4

1

Country

O

4

1

1

Classifier code

details.bankAccount.address.addressDetails.country.scheme

iso-alpha2

O

4

1

2

Identifier

details.bankAccount.address.addressDetails.country.id

O

4

1

3

Description

details.bankAccount.address.addressDetails.country.description

O

4

2

Locality

O

4

2

1

Classifier code

details.bankAccount.address.addressDetails.locality.scheme

MD-CUATM

O

4

2

2

Identifier

details.bankAccount.address.addressDetails.locality.id

O

4

2

3

Description

details.bankAccount.address.addressDetails.locality.description

O

4

3

Region

O

4

3

1

Classifier code

details.bankAccount.address.addressDetails.region.scheme

MD-CUATM

O

4

3

2

Identifier

details.bankAccount.address.addressDetails.region.id

O

4

3

3

Description

details.bankAccount.address.addressDetails.region.description

O

4

4

Postal Code

details.bankAccount.address.postalCode

O

4

5

Street Address

details.bankAccount.address.streetAddress

O

5

Settlement account

O

5

1

Classifier code

accountIdentification.scheme

MD-IBAN

O

5

2

identifier

accountIdentification.id

For Contracting Authority

Initial profile (registration of the contract notice)

Attribute

OCDS attribute

Default

A

Entity Role

B

Entity Short Name

C

Entity National identifier

C

1

Register code

C

2

Identifier

C

3

Legal Name

D

Entity Legal Address

D

1

Country

D

1

1

Classifier code

D

1

2

Identifier

D

1

3

Description

D

2

Locality

D

2

1

Classifier code

D

2

2

Identifier

D

2

3

Description

D

3

Region

D

3

1

Classifier code

D

3

2

Identifier

D

3

3

Description

D

4

Postal Code

D

5

Street Address

E

Classification of type of organization

F

Main General Activity

G

Main Sectoral Activity

H

Classification according to GPA

I

1

GPA Annex

I

1

1

Classifier code

I

1

2

Identifier

I

1

3

Description

J

2

GPA Sub-annex

J

2

1

Classifier code

J

2

2

Identifier

J

2

3

Description

Complete profile (contract preparation)

Attribute

OCDS attribute

Default

K

Legal form of organization

K

1

Classifier code

K

2

Identifier

K

3

Description

L

State registration details

L

1

Date of registration in registry

L

2

State registry no

L

3

Branch (subsidiary) unit code

L

4

Authorization number

M

Related Entities

M

1

Parent Entities

M

1

1

Register code

M

1

2

Identifier

M

1

3

Description

M

2

Branches

M

2

1

Register code

M

2

2

Identifier

M

2

3

Description

M

3

Consortiums, Unions, etc

M

3

1

Register code

M

3

2

Identifier

M

3

3

Description

N

Related Personnels

N

1

Contracting Authority

N

1

1

Title

N

1

2

Full Name

N

1

3

Business function / role

N

1

3

1

Function

N

1

3

1

1

Classifier code

N

1

3

1

2

Identifier

N

1

3

1

3

Description

Job title

N

1

3

2

Period of validity

N

1

3

3

Proxy legal basis

N

1

4

Identification number of person

N

1

4

1

Register code

N

1

4

2

Identifier

N

1

4

3

Description

N

2

Procurement Officer

N

2

1

Full name

N

2

2

E-mail

N

2

3

Telephone

O

VAT status of organization

O

1

VAT code if applicable

P

Bank Reference of organization

P

1

Bank Name

P

2

Bank code

P

2

1

Register Code

P

2

2

Identifier

P

2

3

Reference description

P

2

4

Bank address

P

2

4

1

Country

P

2

4

1

1

Classifier code

P

2

4

1

2

Identifier

P

2

4

1

3

Description

P

2

4

2

Locality

P

2

4

2

1

Classifier code

P

2

4

2

2

Identifier

P

2

4

2

3

Description

P

2

4

2

4

Region

P

2

4

2

5

Classifier code

P

2

4

2

6

Identifier

P

2

4

2

7

Description

P

2

4

3

Postal Code

P

2

4

4

Street Address

P

3

Settlement account

ESPD in MTender

1. The below MTender ESPD self-declaration form replaces the requirement for the candidates and

the tenderers to provide up-front evidence or certificates by allowing EOs to self-declare that they:

do not fall within a ground for exclusion from procurement procedure (min qualification requirements);

meet the relevant contract-specific qualification requirements;fulfil the objective selection criteria and rules set up by the CA in order to reduce the number of candidates in procurement procedure by preselecting best candidates among all candidates qualified in accordance to qualification requirements as prescribed in the contract notice.

2. A set of standardised minimum qualification requirements aligned to the relevant sections of the MTender ESPD form shall be used to define minimum qualification requirements in the contract notices.

3. The MTender ESPD form consist of the following sections:

Part I

Information concerning the procurement procedure and the contracting authority – Registration Form of the contracting entity.

Part II

Information concerning the economic operator – Registration Form of the economic operator

  1. Information about the economic operator.
  2. Information about representatives of the economic operator
  3. Information about reliance on the capacities of other entities, including members of consortium, subcontractors or other third parties
  4. Information concerning subcontractors on whose capacity the economic operator does not rely

Part III

Minimum qualification requirements (eligibility and exclusion grounds):

  1. Grounds relating to criminal convictions.
  2. Grounds relating to the payment of taxes or social security contributions.
  3. Blacklisting.
  4. Grounds relating to insolvency, conflicts of interests or professional misconduct.

Part IV

Contract-specific qualification requirements (selection criteria). Prescribed by CA in the contract notice, may be answered in the Tender Form

  1. Suitability
  2. Economic and financial standing
  3. Technical and professional ability
  4. Quality assurance schemes and environmental management standards
  5. Global indication for all selection criteria

Part V

Reduction of the number of qualified candidates – Pre-selection (restricted tender and other procurement methods with scoring of qualified candidates). Prescribed by CA in the contract notice, may be answered in the Tender Form

Part VI

Legal Statements

Documents of ‘bid’: what “envelopes” means

Electronic bids shall be submitted to the MTender with a content and form as prescribed in the Contract Notice and in the Tender Documents, following standard forms and online submission procedure as prescribed in the terms of use of the MTender. The Economic Operator may be required to submit the Electronic bid packaged into one or several, together or subsequently, submitted specific electronic documents (the MTender ESPD Declaration for: minimum qualification requirements (ESPD I-III), contract-specific qualification requirements (ESPD IV), and selectrion criteria (ESPD V), Tender Form, Technical offer and Financial offer). In particular, the MTender ESPD Declaration may be required to be submitted as a separate Electronic document, if automated verification is possible. If required by the Client in the Contract Notice, electronic catalogues shall be submitted comprising together the Technical and Financial offer.

Envelopes

a. Submission Documents

b. Commercial offer (technical)

c. Commercial offer (financial)

d. Eligibility documents

e. Qualification documents

Disclosure rules

  1. Upon expiry of submission deadlines, the MTender shall generate automatically an electronic document with a record of opening of Electronic bids in the electronic tendering procedure (1.Submission Documents and 4.Eligibility Documents), disclosure Tender Forms in accordance to Article 62 of the Law and release Electronic bids for examination by the Tender Committee, except for cases of unsuccessful electronic tendering procedures, where no bids or no minimum number of bids required by the Law were submitted
  2. An electronic tendering procedures with award criteria of lowest price, lowest cost or price and quality ratio where award of contract has been made with electronic auction, the Electronic documents of the Electronic bid other than disclosed during the bid opening session (2.Commercial offer_Technical, 3.Commercial offer_Financial, 5. Qualification documents) shall be initially disclosed only for the Economic Operator who submitted the winning bid in the electronic reverse auction
  3. Upon completion of the electronic auction, the MTender shall disclosure online the Electronic documents of the Electronic bid of the Economic Operator who submitted the winning bid in the electronic auction. In the event that this Economic Operator is not determined to be qualified to perform the Contract (failed on 5. Qualification documents) or the Technical Offer is determined to be substantially non-responsive to the Tender Documents  and the Electronic bid has been rejected by the decision of the Tender Committee (failed on 2.Commercial offer_Technical), the MTender shall disclosure for the evaluation the second ranked bid from the auction, and so forth
  4. In electronic tendering procedures with award criteria of lowest price and lowest cost without electronic auction to award the Contract, the MTender shall initially disclosure the Electronic documents (2.Commercial offer_Technical, 3.Commercial offer_Financial, 5.Qualification documents) of the Electronic bid of the Economic Operator with the lowest price or the lowest cost provided for in the Tender Form. In the event that the Economic Operator that has submitted the lowest price or the lowest cost is not determined to be qualified to perform the Contract (failed on 5. Qualification documents) or the Technical Offer is determined to be substantially non-responsive to the Tender Documents (2.Commercial offer_Technical, 3.Commercial offer_Financial) and has been rejected by the final decision of the Tender Committee, subject to the right of complaint of the Economic Operator, the MTender shall unlock for the evaluation the second ranked bid and so forth
  5. In electronic tendering procedures with award criteria of price and quality ratio and without the electronic reverse auction to award the Contract, upon expiry of the submission deadlines the MTender shall initially disclosure for examination the MTender ESPD Declarations of the Economic Operators who submitted bids (5.Qualification documents), which should be, whenever possible, supported by automated services of the MTender. In the event that any ESPD declaration is identified as containing mandatory grounds for the exclusion of the Economic Operator, the Economic Operator shall be disqualified, unless clarifications are furnished in due course in accordance to procedure provided in the Tender Documents. When decision of the Client on qualification and disqualification is recorded and notified on the system, the MTender shall simultaneously disclosure the Electronic documents of all Electronic bids submitted by qualified Economic Operators for evaluation of Technical and Financial Offers (2.Commercial offer_Technical, 3.Commercial offer_Financial)

Evaluation Committee

The process of evaluation of tenders is generally carried out by a suitably competent evaluation panel. A chairperson is usually appointed to lead, coordinate, give guidance and control the process of evaluation of tenders. The chairperson is responsible, inter alia, for ensuring that the process of evaluation of tenders is carried out in accordance with the general law and Treaty principles as well as local requirements. A secretary to the evaluation panel, generally with non-voting powers, is often appointed for the purposes of providing support to the chairperson, carrying out the administrative tasks linked to the evaluation process, and keeping the minutes of each meeting.

The way in which the members of the evaluation panel operate - for example whether they assess the tenders independently or jointly - depends on local legislation or local practice.

In principle, the evaluation panel normally has only the mandate to identify the best tender and to make a recommendation as to the award of the contract to the contracting authority.

In order to declare an evaluation panel member, PE while preparing a Contract Notice can add specific information about each person to be included into evaluation panel.

Declaration of absence of conflict of interests

"Member States shall ensure that contracting authorities take appropriate measures to effectively prevent, identify and remedy conflicts of interest arising in the conduct of procurement procedures so as to avoid any distortion of competition and to ensure equal treatment of all economic operators. The concept of conflicts of interest shall at least cover any situation where staff members of the contracting authority or of a procurement service provider acting on behalf of the contracting authority who are involved in the conduct of the procurement procedure or may influence the outcome of that procedure have, directly or indirectly, a financial, economic or other personal interest which might be perceived to compromise their impartiality and independence in the context of the procurement procedure."

EU24/2014 Article 24. Conflicts of interest

Types of conflict

References

Scoring function - structured criteria of evaluation

To achieve MEAT, the buyer can use a scoring function by defining a set of criteria, its available options and values of such options to determine the total available weight of all components of bid and background of evaluation.

The scoring function enables the buyer to articulate its preferences regarding the various attributes which are made public to all tenderers within Contract Notice published.  And the Tenderers use this scoring function to value specific configurations and thus can understand how changes to the various attributes will affect the overall desirability of the bid.

Scoring function is a combination of the applied requirements together with conversions (group of coefficients related to each predefined or allowed valueof each requirement) for the Procurement Process under Contract Notice plus redefined formula which will be applied (automatically or manually) to calculate normalized price.

Creating a tender, Procuring Entity determines key fields of the yet-to-be announced procurement, uploads tender documentation, with the requirements to the subject of procurement indicated as that which determines winner evaluation criteria. Within such criteria in case of using of scoring function Procuring Entity defines:

Criteria

Set of criteria may include different types of requirements, used in different ways and for different reasons. Moreover, some used criteria may be prescribed by the legal basis “by default” (exclusion grounds of ESPD or particular chapters of selection grounds from ESPD, like General yearly turnover).

Types of criteria

Under each Contracting Process Procuring Entity may define and apply various types of criteria for the scoring function. These different types are the following:

Exclusion grounds

A group of these criteria are eligibility criteria put forward by the Procuring Entity to the candidates - all of them are published in the Contract Notice and relate to the whole procedure.

   Full list of applicable exclusion ground described by ESPD part III

Selection criteria and minimum requirements

The group of these criteria is also eligibility criteria, but it is optional for the Procuring Organization to apply for the tender. The criteria allow determining the quantitative and qualitative criteria for candidates for participation in the procedure.

   Full list of applicable exclusion ground described by ESPD part IV

Allowances

The group of these criteria is the award criteria and should be taken into account by the Procuring Organization in cases determined by the relevant law, which also defines a set of such criteria and their values. Examples include the following criteria:

Non-price criteria

The group of these criteria is the award criteria and can be applied by the PEn in the case of the Most Economic Advantages Tender strategy. MEAT is recognized as winning according to the following criteria:

So depending on the category of procurement, the PE can determine a set of non-price criteria (quantitative and qualitative) which will be taken into account along with the price part of the offer and affect the absolute economic value of the entire tender proposal of the participant, increasing his chances to win the tender, do not lower the price (suggesting the most favorable economic conditions).

Criterion values

Each of the described requirements may or may not be associated with a set of available values. For example, Exclusion Grounds available as ‘true/false’ flags and no other options. And Selection or Non-price criteria usually contains not only default or minimum requirements but also other values, available for the tenderers’ choice.

Where this is the case, Procuring Entity obliged to specify in advance:

  1. values and the coefficients which will be the subject of electronic auction, provided that such values are quantifiable and can be expressed in figures or percentages
  2. limits on the values which may be submitted, as they result from the specifications relating to the subject of the contract  
  3. mathematical formula to be used to determine automatic rankings of bids received

Conversions

For those requirements associated with a set of available values, each value from a predefined set (or available according to described pattern) has to be associated with related weighting coefficient. This coefficient is a numeric value which will be applied under math formula of the scoring function of evaluation used under this contracting process to calculate an absolute economic value of each offer received.

Formulation of the offer according to defined scoring function: structured bid

Having a set of requirements defined by Procuring Entity and a number of values available, tenderers by preparing their offers, include the values for each requirement, reflecting the substance of the offer and fulfilling general corporate profiles’ data requested by Procuring Entity or required by the Legal Framework of particular jurisdiction. While submitting their proposal tenderers also fill the non-price parameters — values for specific verifiable tenderer attributes of the offer.

During the following evaluation all these specified values will become the subject of competition, provided that such features are quantifiable and can be expressed in figures or percentages.

Each submitted offer includes:

Ranking for evaluation

As it's shown in the table below, automated ranking can be undertaken using a set of criteria and the relevant conversions applied by PE for each available value of each applied requirement and published in a Contract Notice on one hand. And the requirement responses submitted by each EO against published criteria on another hand. These two data-sets allows to calculate normalized value for each bid based on the same approach.

price only

cost only

quality only

rated criteria

scoring function applied

ranking based

on absolute value of the amount of price offer

ranking based

on absolute value of the amount of price offer considering set of values for quantifiable criteria by Procuring Entity (non-price criteria)

ranking based on

values for quantifiable and qualifiable criteria by Procuring Entity (technical requirements, non-price criteria, criteria on a subject specification)

ranking based on absolute value of the amount of price considering set of values for quantifiable and qualifiable criteria by Procuring Entity (technical requirements, non-price criteria, criteria on a subject specification)

scoring function not applied

-

-

-

-

Normalized price

Where normalized price to be calculated - the following formula to be applied for each offer in order to identify most suitable by normalized price:

Pn = P * C1 * C2 * ... Cn 

where:

Ranking approach

Depending on award criteria and availability of scoring function initial automated ranking can or can not be done:

price only

Where awardCriteria: priceOnly - only bid.value to be compared in order to identify most suitable offer - cheapest goes first

cost only

Where awardCriteria: costOnly - assumption is that all the tenderers have the same bid.value equal to lot.value. It means that the normalized price needs to be calculated for each bid received based on lot.value as a basis. Cheapest goes first

quality Only

Where awardCriteria: qualityOnly - assumption is that the price doesn't matter and the only valuable part of the bid is a quality - meaning set of values of criteria, selected by EO while submitting a bib. It means that the normalized price needs to be calculated for each bid received based on '1' as a basis. Cheapest goes first

rated criteria

Where awardCriteria: ratedCriteria - assumption is that both price and valuable part of the bid are matters. It means that the normalized price needs to be calculated for each bid received based on 'bid.value' as a basis. Cheapest goes first

Background functionality

Main Procurement category identifying

In order to determine whether the subject matter of the procurement are goods, services or works you need to check the first two digits from the CPV code. As described above the CPV consists of nine digits. The first two digits identify the divisions (XX000000-Y). The identification of procurement whether it is goods, services or works is based on the first two digits of the CPV (which identify the division).

Initial budget validation

To be provided

Automated eligibility check

To be provided

Brief processes overview

Budgeting

Budgeting phase is a stage where CA should assess and define the scope of his needs as well as disclose and describe existing fundings for each defined need. With this description CA will allow system to validate all future contracting processes from assessed needs and available funding perspective as well as control and disclose the progress of execution of this or that expenditure item, analyzing planned and announced procedures, conducted and executed or/and terminated contracts and made transactions.

Definition of needs

All needs could be divided into separate expenditure items - groups of needs united under common classification and procuring period for each specific buyer. For example: buyer needs to procure 25 different kinds of furniture (on this stage - doesn't matter which exactly) during the next year - all these needs are expenditure item «Furniture» under CPV-code 391. Thus, from a technical point of view such groups, expenditure items, are aggregated data-sets, based on common CPV-code and budget period (most often - year)

Each defined expenditure item, on an annual financial plans’ level, has available fundings. Thus, the next step of budgeting is a description of such available fundings. The ‘amount’ available under this expenditure item for this period is the sum of all sources of funding and its amounts, identified for this expenditure item.

Budget allocation

Either CA is funded via Treasury or has own funds, all these funds could be described with a unified model: funding source itself is a set of meta-data and quantitative values describe its volume, period of availability, source of fundings, rules of spending, responsible entities and so on as well as permitted target area - the classification of subject for which this specific budget can be spent.  

This classification of subject together with period of availability of fundings could be used as a reference for parent expenditure item - their common indicative attributes that allow CA to «connect» set of funding sources under single expenditure item for some predefined period (budget period of EI that should cover all periods of availability of all joined FSs).

Differentiation of funding from source perspective

To be provided

Initial budget validation

To be provided

Planning

Once the EI and its FSs defined and described, CA is able to plan and schedule needed procurements - contracting processes for this subject classification - CPV group. Particular EI should be indicated as a ground (meta-parent) of future contracting process.

Depending on CAs procurement strategy, Periodic Notice (PN) or Prior Information Notice (PIN) could be prepared and published. Within this notice (PN or PIN) allocated by CA himself budget must be specified as a set of identified from the list of available under used EI funding sources together with allocated amounts - separate for each selected FS[e]. The sum of all specified amounts of all indicated funding sources is a maximum available budget of future contract that will be conducted under this contracting process.

Provisional evaluation panel

Provisional set of Procuring Entity evaluation panel could be announced on the planning level. This set can be changed later on a Contract Notice preparation level.

One-stage competitive procedure (Micro, RPQ, Open)

Depending on the type of procedure, method of procurement, geography and the legal basis, the attribute composition of the model can be adjusted, but its general logic remains unchanged for all types of procedures.

The contracting process based on competitive procedure is commonly carried out in the following sequence:

Business Process Diagram (go to https://goo.gl/bdUhh6)

Announce a tender

Creating a tender, CA determines key fields of the yet-to-be announced procurement, uploads tender documentation, with the requirements to the procurement object indicated as that which determines winner evaluation criteria.

Scoring function implementation

To achieve MEAT, Procuring Entity can use a scoring function by defining together with a regular common information a set of criteria, its available options and coefficients of such options to determine the total available weight of all components of bid and background of evaluation.

Criteria

Set of criteria may include different types of requirements, used in different ways and for different reasons. Moreover, some used criteria may be prescribed by the legal basis “by default” (exclusion grounds of ESPD or particular chapters of selection grounds from ESPD, like General yearly turnover).

   Read more about criteria under scoring function

Conversions

Where scoring function to be applied, a set of verifiable conversions needed for future ranking and evaluation.

   Read more about conversions for scoring function

Evaluation panel

Set of Procuring Entity evaluation panel could be announced or updated (if some changes or replacements took place since PN for this contracting process was published and evaluation panel was expressed there).

   Read more about PEs' evaluation committee

Clarification period

Clarification period is separately distinguished in the procurement procedure during which participants can ask questions regarding the procurement requirements, demand issue resolution, and submit a claims, while CA can provide answers to questions and introduce changes into the procurement conditions (according to the rules and limitations below). The duration of the clarification period and offer submission is determined by CA but in any case can not be less than those prescribed by Law.

Suspending of procedure

Any accepted enquiries which have no relevant clarification provided by CA before ‘enquiryPeriod.endDate’ suspend the start of next phase of contracting process - submission period.

Unsuspending of procedure

After the publication of the CAs’ clarifications, procedure is unsuspended automatically with prolongation of ‘enquiryPeriod’ according to the rules, prescribed by Law.

Future steps

In addition to existing opportunity to ask questions about the procurement procedure, any user in the system (except Procuring entity) can contact Procuring entity and make a Violation elimination claim about the tender conditions. The Procuring entity has prescribed period to review the claim and make a decision on it. During this period the Procuring entity must publish a response to the claim and (in the case of complaint satisfaction) amend the appropriate procurement conditions or awarding procedure results.

Complaint submission

Complaints on conditions received during clarification period transfer to the official Review body. After the complaint submission, a representative of the Review Body checks whether all requirements are fulfilled and carried out. If so, complaint is accepted for review. Otherwise, it is rejected.

Complaint withdrawal

At any time before the publication of the Review body’s decision, the complainant can withdraw his complaint.

Standstill period

The duration of the applicable standstill period following a challenge or complaint of tenders’ conditions or actions taken by the Procuring Entity that are allegedly not in compliance with the provisions of the Law.

Reviewing

To indicate the results of review of accepted complaint, representative of Review Body must specify the results via changing of status of reviewed complaint together with contribution of additional needed information.

Amendments or additional information

The Public Sector Directive in its introduction regulates the circumstances where modifications to a contract notice while it is being carried out are possible without a requirement to start a new tender process.

Introduction 82:

It should be clarified that the need to ensure that economic operators have sufficient time in which to draw up responsive tenders may entail that the time limits which were set initially may have to be extended. This would, in particular, be the case where significant changes are made to the procurement documents. It should also be specified that, in that case, significant changes should be understood as covering changes, in particular to the technical specifications, in respect of which economic operators would need additional time in order to understand and respond appropriately. It should, however, be clarified that such changes should not be so substantial that the admission of candidates other than those initially selected would have been allowed for or additional participants in the procurement procedure would have been attracted. That could, in particular, be the case where the changes render the contract or framework agreement materially different in character from the one initially set out in the procurement documents.

Future steps

Permitted or non-significant modifications of contract notice during their term – then new procurement procedure is not required.

Prohibited or substantial modifications of contract notice during their term – new procurement procedure required.

How to handle contract modifications        

Submission of the offers

Once the clarification period is over the CA can no longer introduce changes into the Contract Notice. Economic Operators submit offers that are confidential.

Requirement responses for automated ranking and evaluation

Having a set of requirements defined by Procuring Entity and a number of values available, tenderers by preparing their offers, include a values for each requirement, reflecting the substance of the offer and fulfilling general corporate profiles’ data requested by Procuring Entity or required by the Legal Framework of particular jurisdiction. While submitting their proposal tenderers also fill the non-price parameters — values for specific verifiable tenderer attributes of the offer.

   Read more about structured bids

Modifications

An Economic Operator may modify its electronic bid by submitting online within submission deadlines a new information regarding previously submitted offer in accordance to the electronic submission procedures.

Withdrawal

An Economic Operator may withdraw his electronic bid by submitting online within submission deadlines a request for cancellation of previously submitted offer.

Substitution

An Economic Operator may substitute his electronic bid by submitting online within submission deadlines a request for cancellation of previously submitted offer and the new electronic bid in accordance to the electronic submission procedures.

Reverse Auction

Single unique link for each scheduled electronic auction will be available in Public Point. Depending on access-mode (with or without token) this link might work as:

Preparation of the auction

Date and time of the auction are determined by the BPE automatically, once the Contract Notice is published. Platforms have to inform their users about the upcoming auction beginning date. If no participant is registered (or only one bid received) after the end of the tender period, the system automatically changes the process status to ‘unsuccessful’.

   Note that electronic auctions (if included) are held for each lot separately

If more than one participant is registered, the system activates the e-Auction module. Those participants who registered their offers for this particular procurement can participate in the auction. All the other users, including the CA of this process, can observe how the auction develops. Once the Auction is established, the NEPPs are granted access to the auction web-page for participant access provision to the auction.

Then the auction-phase ends

Once all established under single submission stage electronic auctions end partially disclosure of all the Information on tenderers and their bids occur. Such partially disclosed information includes all the data except financial offer digitalization (financial envelope). This granularity will be disclosed only for single qualified offer during the evaluation process.

   Information disclosure on tenderers occurs once the last auction in this process is completed

Evaluation and identification of the procurement winner

Once the submission period is over and participants can no longer submit or update their bids, the system will disclose all submitted bids.

In case if after submission period end there is nothing to disclose (no bids were submitted) or all submitted bids failed, the system will automatically change this specific lot of this contracting process to status “unsuccessful”.

Where enough number of bids received during the tendering period, the system will generate a set of qualification envelopes (awards) and launch the awarding period for this contracting process.

Eligibility check

Automated check

System will automatically verify eligibility (based on data available via external bus) of each tenderer whose bid was disclosed according to rules of dispatch under the current procurement method.

   Read more about automated eligibility check

Manual check

Where automated check is not available, Procuring entity shall provide an eligibility check manually. Depending on award criteria applied, the system will disclose either eligibility documents only or full package of documents submitted by EOs within their bids.

   Read more about envelopes disclosure rules

System will allow PE to check eligibility of the candidates against initially announced criteria in any order.

The financial part of bids of those candidates who passed eligibility check will go to the technical evaluation. All the others who failed eligibility check are excluded from evaluation.

Initial ranking for evaluation

Depending on award criteria applied system will rank eligible bids and suggest them in order of admissibility: from the most to the least acceptable by applicable criteria. This automated ranking is undertaken using a set of criteria and the relevant conversions applied by PE for each available value of each applied requirement and published in a Contract Notice on one hand. And the requirement responses submitted by each EO against published criteria on another hand.

   Read more about initial ranking according to the scoring function

Technical evaluation

CA sequentially reviews bids that are eligible starting with declaration of non conflict of interest beginning with first ranked by the system.

Declaration of non-conflict of interests

Due to requirements of declaration of non conflict of interest by evaluation panel members against each tenderer for each bid to be evaluated, the system will generate relevant requests for each evaluation panel member declared by Procuring Entity within Contact Notice.

Each initial or new (in case of replacement) member of the evaluation panel shall submit relevant responses in order to  confirm an absence of conflict of interest for each tenderer (legal entity) in each bid received for evaluation by panel.

Since this is a declaration following Open Government Principles, this action does not block the evaluation process. It means that technically Procuring Entity can pass this stage and start the evaluation without declarations by evaluation panel members. But this PEs decision will be reflected in the system and published for public access.

Technical consideration

Evaluation panel considers technical compliance according to the award criteria methodology applied and a scoring function (where included). If the most acceptable bid is in compliance with the CA’s technical requirements, PE determines this offer as a qualified and goes to the next step - financial evaluation. If it is not, PE confirms his decision to disqualify the participant and declines such an offer. Then the system suggests to qualify the next offer from the acceptance perspective.

Financial consideration

Evaluation panel considers financial compliance according to the award criteria methodology applied and a scoring function (where included). If a qualified offer is in compliance with the CA’s financial requirements, PE determines this offer as a winner. If it is not in compliance, CA confirms his decision to disqualify the offer on this (evaluation) stage, and declines such an offer. Then the system suggests to qualify the next offer from the acceptance perspective.

If all the offers were declined by PE either on qualification step or on evaluation and upon the completion of complaining process (review period) this specific lot of this contracting process automatically changes to ‘unsuccessful’.

Evaluation Protocol

Once a winner is selected for each lot, CA submits the evaluation protocol which, in its turn, indicates the end of the awarding process. As a result of submission of evaluation protocol, the system will automatically generate a set of Contract Award Notices for each awarded lot, change evaluation stage to ‘awarded’ and launch the complaining process - review period.

Tender/lot cancellation

According to Public procurement standard forms guidance 2017-06-23 (version 1.1) Corrigendum is no longer used to inform about cancelled* (i.e. incomplete or unsuccessful) procedures. This is done by using the contract award notice, where non-award can be indicated, per lot, in section V.1.

If contracting bodies wish to inform the market about their plan to cancel a procedure beforehand then they can advertise this at EU level using a сorrigendum notice. In this case, they should add a text announcing the intent to cancel ("The contracting authority or entity intends to repeal this notice.") in the "Other additional information field" (VII.2) and explain the reasons. After the standstill period has elapsed, they should announce the formal cancelation through the contract award notice as usual (with possibly repeating the reasons for the cancellation in the "Additional information field" (VI.3)).

   CA can cancel either procedure or separate lot anytime before its completion

Review period

Review period is a time-slot during which the decision of the procuring entity to award a contract or cancel competition under separate lot or all the contracting process can be challenged. All the tenderers whose offers were reviewed by PE are able to claim on such made decisions. This review period is the same for all the  tenderers.

Future steps

If any complaints were received and accepted for review during the review period, the system automatically establishes standstill period for each received complaint separately.

Complaint submission

Complaints on made decisions received during the review period transfer to the official Review body. After the complaint submission, a representative of the Review Body checks whether all requirements are fulfilled and carried out. If so, complaint is accepted for review. Otherwise, it is rejected.

Complaint withdrawal

At any time before the publication of the Review body’s decision, the complainant can withdraw his complaint.

Suspending of procedure

Such accepted complaints block the opportunity to run contracting step (publish a contract with the winner) and suspend all evaluation stage via establishing of special time-slot: system automatically establishes standstill period for each complaint received and accepted for review.

Standstill period

The duration of the applicable standstill period following a challenge or complaint of decisions or actions taken by the Procuring Entity that are allegedly not in compliance with the provisions of the Law.

Reviewing

To indicate the results of review of accepted complaint, representative of Review Body must specify the results via changing of status of reviewed complaint together with contribution of additional needed information.

Unsuspending of procedure

After the publication of the Review body’s decision with the status “dismissed” procedure is unsuspended automatically. Satisfied complaints should be changed by CA to ‘complete’ state.

Concluding an agreement

As soon as either review period or all established standstill periods expired, CA will prepare and publish the concluded agreement for signing and verification.

Preparation

Once review period ends, the system automatically generates a set of drafts of future awarded contracts (AC) - separate draft for each determined winner. CA updates these drafts with actual needed data (required according to local rules) and, once all such updates are done, CA indicates this contract is fully prepared for signing. System automatically generates PDF of needed contract based on received data and standardized template. Such pdf-document will be put to the ‘documents’ section of specific contract and all this contract will be switched to  ‘ready for signing’ state. Thereafter, signing and validation process starts

Signing

Validation
Activation

At this point, the awarding process is completed, and no further actions are required. The evaluation phase goes to ‘complete’ state and all the contracting process goes to ‘execution’.

Future steps:

Implementation

Transactions

Direct Award

CA is able to maintain the registration of information regarding single source procedures carried out of the eProcurement system and the execution of the process inside the system as well. Having entered the information regarding the procedure, CA enters information on the winner and the agreement.

The procurement process is carried out in the following sequence:

Business Process Diagram (go to https://goo.gl/kLQ58b)

Publication of a decision on intent to conclude an agreement

CA publishes the concluded agreement and enters information regarding the EO immediately. This information is published as a report on the concluded agreement. It is not possible to submit a complaint at this point.

Entering information on EO on the basis of the concluded agreement

CA enters information on EO on the basis of the concluded agreement. Editing is possible only until the report activation made by CA. Additionally CA notes compliance with qualification criteria for a certain EO on the agreement. Once the EO is determined, no further actions are performed by the CA.

Concluding an agreement

Once the EO information is entered, CA can publish the concluded agreement. Conclusion of agreement, report on the introduced changes into the agreement, and execution of agreement are executed in the following way:

  1. Changes of the agreement’s status to active or terminated, should be certified with EDS as a matter of course.
  2. Entering information on the agreement is optional. Upon affixation of EDS, CA can finish the procedure (complete).

Procedure completion

Once the agreement was uploaded and EDS added, the procedure automatically changes to ‘complete’ status.

Contract execution

Amendments and extensions

Contracting parties that are not subject to the public procurement rules enjoy the freedom to modify contracts. As long as they are able to reach an agreement, the contract may be amended as they see fit. Contracting authorities subject to the public procurement rules are in a different position. When a public contract needs to be modified, the starting assumption is that the modification will trigger the requirement for a new competitive public tender process.

It is not generally permitted for a contracting authority and an economic operator to agree to change an existing contract. The terms of the concluded contract should reflect the commitments made in the offer that was selected as the most economically advantageous. Ideally, if contracts are well founded, they should be performed without modifications. Where an existing contract is altered by an agreement, there is a risk that other economic operators lose an opportunity to compete for what is effectively a new opportunity. The agreement to change the contract will be a breach of the principles of transparency and equal treatment. The procurement rules seek to prevent this type of behaviour, which can distort the market.        

In practice, however, the limited modification of an existing public contract can be necessary. Contracting authorities and economic operators might be faced with legitimate situations that require changes in the contract. Practical examples include situations where price indexes have changed, genuine unforeseeable circumstances have occurred, or technical difficulties have arisen during the operation or maintenance phase of a contract.

The Public Sector Directive explicitly regulates the circumstances where modifications to a contract or framework agreement while it is being carried out are possible without a requirement to start a new tender process.

Permitted or non-substantial modifications of contract notice during their term – then new procurement procedure is not required                                        

Under the Directive, modifications of the contract (or framework agreement) are permitted without having to conduct a new procurement procedure, but within very strict boundaries and only in specified situations. In general, contracts may be modified when the modifications are not substantial. What constitutes a substantial modification is explained below. In Article 72, the Directive sets out six permitted, or non-substantial, modifications of a contract during its term.

  1. 1. Modifications expressly provided for in the initial procurement documents

Modification is permitted where it is expressly provided for in review clauses set out in the initial procurement documents. Review clauses can provide a certain degree of flexibility in the terms of the contract. Modifications to the contract cannot be permitted simply because they were mentioned in the procurement documents in advance.                

  1. 2. Additional works, services or supplies

The above provision applies when the circumstances requiring a modification were foreseeable, but the contracting authority failed to foresee them or failed to provide for them for other reasons.

  1. 3. Modifications due to unforeseen circumstances

When an unforeseeable event occurs that requires a modification of the contract that would be disproportionate in terms of the continuation of the contract concerned and the costs associated with a procedure to award a new contract, the existing contract can be modified without a new procurement procedure.

  1. Replacement of a contractual partner        

As a general rule, the replacement of a contractual partner constitutes a substantial modification of the contract. In line with the principles of equal treatment and transparency, another economic operator should not replace the successful tenderer without the contract being reopened to competition. However, the Directive treats the change of contractor as a non-substantial modification in three specific situations.

  1. Low value (non-substantial) modifications
  2. Other non-substantial modification

Termination

Getting Started

Performance recommendations

To be provided

Authentification

Authentication process follows according to general Authentication mechanisms of Auth Service

Retrieving data

Retrieving process follows according to general data retrieving mechanism 

Creating data

‘X-OPERATION-ID’ mechanism

BPE should always know what client is going to do before this action. Accordingly 'X-OPERATION-ID' is required when the POST-request is sent. 'X-OPERATION-ID' can be got via GET-request..

POST HTTP/1.1
Authorization: Bearer QWxhZGRpbjpPcGVuU2VzYW1l
Host: operation.eprocurement.systems

Also ‘X-OPERATION-ID’ provides request identification. So use your ‘X-OPERATION-ID’ to identify and analyze data received from Feed-Point

   Learn more about X-OPERATION-ID of Operation Service