How RPA Procurement Operates?
The Principles of Public Sector Buying
The European Community Treaty covers all public-sector procurement contracts in the European Union, regardless of their value. The Treaty establishes four fundamental principles, which govern public procurement. These are as follows:
Equal Treatment
The principle of Equal Treatment requires that all suppliers be treated equally and with the utmost fairness at every stage of a contract award procedure. This means that the selection of candidates to tender, the receipt of tenders and the treatment of tenders must be carried out in a scrupulously fair manner. A breach of equal treatment would occur where a supplier suffered discrimination because of location or nationality or bias of any description.
Transparency
The principle of Transparency requires that information regarding forthcoming contracts and the rules to be applied should be readily available to all interested candidates. It requires that candidates be informed of the rules that will be applied in assessing their applications for tender lists and the criteria to be used in the evaluation of tenders. In the absence of this information, it would be impossible for a competitive tendering process to be carried out properly. A breach of transparency would arise where a contract was awarded with limited publicity or even no publicity at all, as well as in the absence of award criteria being available to tenderers.
Proportionality
The principle of Proportionality requires that the demands placed upon suppliers should be both relevant and directly related to the contract being awarded. For example, suppliers should be prepared to provide information about their company and their products when such information is necessary for commercial decisions to be taken by buyers. A breach of proportionality would arise where excessive conditions were placed upon prospective suppliers. A typical example would be where a buyer insisted on a minimum turnover of € 10 million when awarding a contract for € 100,000.
Mutual Recognition
The principle of Mutual Recognition requires that the standards, specifications and qualifications in use throughout the EU should receive equal recognition, on condition that the products or services are suitable for their intended purpose. A breach of this principle would arise in a case where a product was suitable for the purpose specified and complied with the relevant standards in the supplier’s country but was disqualified because the supplier was unable to demonstrate compliance with the specific standard quoted in the tender.
Suppliers, service providers, and works contractors therefore have the right to fair play and equal treatment by the contracting entities. On their side, however, the contracting entities have the right to achieve both value for money in selecting the lowest priced offers, or alternatively, of the economically most advantageous valid tenders.
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