TITLE II

RULES ON PUBLIC CONTRACTS
CHAPTER VII

Conduct of the procedure
Section 2

Criteria for qualitative selection

Technical and/or professional ability
Article 48
1
The technical and/or professional abilities of the economic operators shall be assessed and examined in accordance with paragraphs 2 and 3.
2
Evidence of the economic operators' technical abilities may be furnished by one or more of the following means according to the nature, quantity or importance, and use of the works, supplies or services:
a
1. a list of the works carried out over the past five years, accompanied by certificates of satisfactory execution for the most important works. These certificates shall indicate the value, date and site of the works and shall specify whether they were carried out according to the rules of the trade and properly completed. Where appropriate, the competent authority shall submit these certificates to the contracting authority direct;
2. a list of the principal deliveries effected or the main services provided in the past three years, with the sums, dates and recipients, whether public or private, involved. Evidence of delivery and services provided shall be given:
  - where the recipient was a contracting authority, in the form of certificates issued or countersigned by the competent authority,
  - where the recipient was a private purchaser, by the purchaser's certification or, failing this, simply by a declaration by the economic operator;
b
an indication of the technicians or technical bodies involved, whether or not belonging directly to the economic operator's undertaking, especially those responsible for quality control and, in the case of public works contracts, those upon whom the contractor can call in order to carry out the work;
c
a description of the technical facilities and measures used by the supplier or service provider for ensuring quality and the undertaking's study and research facilities;
d
where the products or services to be supplied are complex or, exceptionally, are required for a special purpose, a check carried out by the contracting authorities or on their behalf by a competent official body of the country in which the supplier or service provider is established, subject to that body's agreement, on the production capacities of the supplier or the technical capacity of the service provider and, if necessary, on the means of study and research which are available to it and the quality control measures it will operate;
e
the educational and professional qualifications of the service provider or contractor and/or those of the undertaking's managerial staff and, in particular, those of the person or persons responsible for providing the services or managing the work;
f
for public works contracts and public services contracts, and only in appropriate cases, an indication of the environmental management measures that the economic operator will be able to apply when performing the contract;
g
a statement of the average annual manpower of the service provider or contractor and the number of managerial staff for the last three years;
h
a statement of the tools, plant or technical equipment available to the service provider or contractor for carrying out the contract;
i
an indication of the proportion of the contract which the services provider intends possibly to subcontract;
j
with regard to the products to be supplied:
1. samples, descriptions and/or photographs, the authenticity of which must be certified if the contracting authority so requests;
2. certificates drawn up by official quality control institutes or agencies of recognised competence attesting the conformity of products clearly identified by references to specifications or standards.
3
An economic operator may, where appropriate and for a particular contract, rely on the capacities of other entities, regardless of the legal nature of the links which it has with them. It must in that case prove to the contracting authority that it will have at its disposal the resources necessary for the execution of the contract, for example, by producing an undertaking by those entities to place the necessary resources at the disposal of the economic operator.
4
Under the same conditions a group of economic operators as referred to Article 4 may rely on the abilities of participants in the group or in other entities.
5
In procedures for awarding public contracts having as their object supplies requiring siting or installation work, the provision of services and/or the execution of works, the ability of economic operators to provide the service or to execute the installation or the work may be evaluated in particular with regard to their skills, efficiency, experience and reliability.
6
The contracting authority shall specify, in the notice or in the invitation to tender, which references under paragraph 2 it wishes to receive.