Procurement Rules

As a local authority, the Council has to comply with the European Union public procurement directives. These rules can be quite complex, but essentially they are designed to ensure that any firm or organisation in any EU member country has a fair and equal opportunity to compete for any public sector contract in any EU country.

The rules themselves, with a few exceptions, require all invitations to tender for contracts above a certain value to be advertised in the supplement to the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU). They also specify, for example, certain allowable criteria upon which contracts can be awarded, the designated tendering procedures and the minimum timescales to be allowed for the submission of tenders. The rules are backed up by substantial legal remedies for any non-compliance.

Contracts with an estimated value above the following thresholds are subject to the regulations:-

Part A services: include building cleaning, accounting, management consultancy, architectural, engineering, IT, etc - and are subject to the full force of the EU Directives.

Part B services: are subject to more relaxed requirements. Almost all Children & Community Services at the Council will qualify under Part B.

For further information about European Public Procurement, click here to link to the European Commission’s SIMAP website.