SUB-SECTION 6Publication and transparency
Prior information notices
48.—(1) Contracting authorities may make known their intentions of planned procurements through the publication of a prior information notice.
(2) Such notices shall contain the information set out in section I of part B of Annex V to the Public Contracts Directive.
(3) A contracting authority wishing to publish a prior information notice shall—
(a)send it for publication in accordance with regulation 51; or
(b)publish it on the contracting authority’s buyer profile in accordance with regulation 52.
(4) Where the prior information notice is published by the contracting authority on its buyer profile—
(a)the prior information notice shall contain the information set out in part A of Annex V to the Public Contracts Directive, and
(b)the contracting authority shall send for publication, in accordance with regulation 51, a notice of the publication on its buyer profile.
(5) Where sub-central contracting authorities use a prior information notice as a call for competition in accordance with regulation 26(9), the notice shall fulfil all of the following conditions:—
(a)it refers specifically to the supplies, works or services that will be the subject-matter of the contract to be awarded;
(b)it indicates that the contract will be awarded by restricted procedure or competitive procedure with negotiation without further publication of a call for competition and invites interested economic operators to express their interest;
(c)it contains, in addition to the information set out in section 1 of part B of Annex V to the Public Contracts Directive, the information set out in section 2 of that part;
(d)it has been sent for publication between 35 days and 12 months prior to the date on which an invitation is sent for the purposes of regulation 54(1) or (2).
(6) Where paragraph (5) applies, paragraph (3)(b) shall not apply to the notice, but additional publication at national level under regulation 52, if any, may be made on a buyer profile.
(7) The period covered by the prior information notice shall be a maximum of 12 months from the date on which the notice is transmitted for publication.
(8) In the case of public contracts for social and other specific services, the prior information notice referred to in regulation 75(1)(b) may cover a period which is longer than 12 months.
Contract notices
49. Contract notices shall contain the information set out in part C of Annex 5 to the Public Contracts Directive and shall be sent for publication in accordance with regulation 51.
Contract award notices
50.—(1) Not later than 30 days after the award of a contract or the conclusion of a framework agreement, following the decision to award or conclude it, contracting authorities shall send for publication a contract award notice on the results of the procurement procedure.
(2) Such notices shall contain the information set out in part D of Annex 5 to the Public Contracts Directive and shall be sent for publication in accordance with regulation 51.
(3) Where the call for competition for the contract concerned has been made in the form of a prior information notice and the contracting authority has decided that it will not award further contracts during the period covered by the prior information notice, the contract award notice shall contain a specific indication to that effect.
(4) In the case of framework agreements, contracting authorities shall not be bound to send a notice of the results of the procurement procedure for each contract based on such an agreement.
(5) In the case of dynamic purchasing systems, contracting authorities shall either—
(a)send a contract award notice within 30 days after the award of each contract based on a dynamic purchasing system, or
(b)group such notices on a quarterly basis, in which case they shall send the grouped notices within 30 days of the end of each quarter.
(6) Certain information on the award of the contract or the conclusion of the framework agreement may be withheld from publication where its release—
(a)would impede law enforcement or would otherwise be contrary to the public interest,
(b)would prejudice the legitimate commercial interests of a particular economic operator, whether public or private, or
(c)might prejudice fair competition between economic operators.
Form and manner of sending notices for publication at EU level
51.—(1) The notices required by regulations 48, 49, 50, 72, 75 and 79 to be sent for publication in accordance with this regulation shall be sent by electronic means to the EU Publications Office for publication.
(2) Contracting authorities shall ensure that they are able to supply proof of the dates on which notices are sent to the EU Publications Office for publication.
(3) Where the EU Publications Office has given the contracting authority confirmation of the receipt of the notice and of the publication of the information sent, indicating the date of that publication, that confirmation shall constitute proof of publication.
(4) Contracting authorities may send notices in respect of public contracts to the EU Publications Office for publication even where they are not required by this Part to do so, provided that the notices are sent by electronic means.
Publication at national level
Publication on buyer profiles
52.—(1) In addition to the publication of the notices refered to in regulations 48, 49, 50, 75 and 79 by the EU Publications Office, contracting authorities may publish the information contained in them on the internet on a buyer profile.
(2) A buyer profile may also include (in addition to the prior information notices referred to in regulation 48(3)(b))—
(a)information on ongoing invitations to tender, scheduled purchases, contracts concluded, procedures cancelled; and
(b)any useful general information, such as a contact point, a telephone and a fax number, a postal address and an e-mail address.
Timing and content of publication at national level
(3) The notices referred to in regulations 48, 49, 50, 72 and 79, and the information contained in them, shall not be published at national level before they are published by the EU Publications Office.
(4) But publication may in any event take place at national level where contracting authorities have not been notified of the publication by the EU Publications Office within 48 hours after confirmation of the receipt of the notice in accordance with Article 51(5) of the Public Contracts Directive.
(5) Notices published at national level shall not contain information other than that contained in the notices sent to the EU Publications Office or published on a buyer profile, but shall indicate the date of sending of the notice to the EU Publications Office or its publication on the buyer profile.
(6) Where a prior information notice is to be published on a buyer profile for the purposes of regulation 48(3)(b)—
(a)the prior information notice may not be so published before the notice referred to in regulation 48(4)(b) is sent to the EU Publications Office; and
(b)the prior information notice shall indicate the date of that sending.
Electronic availability of procurement documents
53.—(1) Contracting authorities shall, by means of the internet, offer unrestricted and full direct access free of charge to the procurement documents from the date of the publication in the Official Journal of a notice sent in accordance with regulation 51 or the date on which an invitation to confirm interest is sent.
(2) The text of the notice or the invitation to confirm interest shall specify the internet address at which the procurement documents are accessible.
(3) Where unrestricted and full direct access free of charge to certain procurement documents cannot be offered by means of the internet for one of the reasons set out in regulation 22(3), contracting authorities may indicate in the notice or the invitation to confirm interest that the procurement documents concerned will be transmitted by means other than the internet in accordance with paragraphs (6) and (7).
(4) Where unrestricted and full direct access free of charge to certain procurement documents cannot be offered by means of the internet because contracting authorities intend to apply regulation 21(3), contracting authorities shall indicate in the notice or the invitation to confirm interest which measures aimed at protecting the confidential nature of the information they require and how access can be obtained to the documents concerned.
(5) In the cases referred to in paragraphs (3) and (4), the time limit for the submission of tenders shall be prolonged by 5 days, except in the cases of duly substantiated urgency referred to in regulations 27(5), 28(10) and 29(10).
(6) Provided that it has been requested in good time, contracting authorities shall supply to all tenderers taking part in the procurement procedure additional information relating to the specifications and any supporting documents not later than 6 days before the time limit fixed for the receipt of tenders.
(7) In the case of an accelerated procedure, the period mentioned in paragraph (6) shall be 4 days.
Invitations to candidates
54.—(1) In restricted procedures, competitive dialogue procedures, innovation partnerships and competitive procedures with negotiation, contracting authorities shall simultaneously and in writing invite the selected candidates to submit their tenders or, in the case of a competitive dialogue, to take part in the dialogue.
(2) Where a prior information notice is used as a call for competition in accordance with regulation 26(9), contracting authorities shall simultaneously and in writing invite the economic operators which have expressed their interest to confirm their continuing interest.
(3) The invitations required by paragraphs (1) and (2) shall—
(a)include a reference to the electronic address at which the procurement documents have been made directly available by electronic means, and
(b)be accompanied by the procurement documents, where those documents have not been the subject of unrestricted and full direct access, free of charge, for the reasons referred to in regulation 53(3) or (4) and have not already been made otherwise available.
(4) The invitations required by paragraph (1) shall also contain at least the following information:—
(a)a reference to the call for competition published;
(b)the deadline for the receipt of the tenders, the address to which the tenders must be sent and the language or languages in which the tenders must be drawn up;
(c)in the case of competitive dialogue, the date and the address set for the start of consultation and the language or languages to be used;
(d)a reference to any documents to be submitted, either in support of verifiable declarations by the tenderer in accordance with regulations 59 and 60 and, where appropriate, 62 or to supplement the information referred to in those regulations, and under the conditions laid down in regulations 59, 60 and 62;
(e)the relative weighting of criteria for the award of the contract or, where appropriate, the descending order of importance for such criteria, where they are not given in the contract notice, in the invitation to confirm interest, in the technical specifications or the descriptive document.
(5) But in the case of contracts awarded through a competitive dialogue or an innovation partnership, the information referred to in paragraph (4)(b) shall not appear in the invitation to participate in the dialogue or to negotiate but it shall appear in the invitation to submit a tender.
(6) The invitations required by paragraph (2) shall also contain at least the following information:—
(a)nature and quantity, including all options concerning complementary contracts and, where possible, the estimated time available for exercising these options for renewable contracts, the nature and quantity and, where possible, the estimated publication dates of future notices of competition for works, supplies or services to be put out to tender;
(b)type of procedure, namely restricted procedure or competitive procedure with negotiation;
(c)where applicable, the date on which the delivery of supplies or the execution of works or services is to commence or terminate;
(d)where electronic access cannot be offered, the address and closing date for the submission of requests for procurement documents and the language or languages in which they are to be drawn up;
(e)the address of the contracting authority which is to award the contract;
(f)economic and technical conditions, financial guarantees and information required from economic operators;
(g)the form of the contract which is the subject of the invitation to tender, namely purchase, lease, hire or hire-purchase, or any combination of these; and
(h)the contract award criteria and their weighting or, where appropriate, the order of importance of such criteria, where this information is not given in the prior information notice or the technical specifications or in the invitation to tender or to negotiate.
Informing candidates and tenderers
55.—(1) Contracting authorities shall as soon as possible inform each candidate and tenderer of decisions reached concerning the conclusion of a framework agreement, the award of a contract or admittance to a dynamic purchasing system, including the grounds for any decision—
(a)not to conclude a framework agreement,
(b)not to award a contract for which there has been a call for competition,
(c)to recommence the procedure, or
(d)not to implement a dynamic purchasing system.
(2) On request from the candidate or tenderer concerned, the contracting authority shall as quickly as possible, and in any event within 15 days from receipt of a written request, inform—
(a)any unsuccessful candidate of the reasons for the rejection of its request to participate;
(b)any unsuccessful tenderer of the reasons for the rejection of its tender, including, for the cases referred to in regulation 42(14) and (15), the reasons for its decision of non-equivalence or its decision that the works, supplies or services do not meet the performance or functional requirements;
(c)any tenderer that has made an admissible tender of the characteristics and relative advantages of the tender selected as well as the name of the successful tenderer or the parties to the framework agreement;
(d)any tenderer that has made an admissible tender of the conduct and progress of negotiations and dialogue with tenderers.
(3) Contracting authorities may decide to withhold certain information referred to in paragraphs (1) and (2) where the release of such information—
(a)would impede law enforcement or would otherwise be contrary to the public interest;
(b)would prejudice the legitimate commercial interests of a particular economic operator, whether public or private; or
(c)might prejudice fair competition between economic operators.