Interactive Seminar Awarding, Selection and Exclusion Criteria in Public Procurement

Advanced hands-on experience, operative know-how and thorough knowledge of procedures and risks are necessary to ensure clear, effective and reliable procurement procedures. Efficient procurement procedures require more flexibility, transparency and fulfilment of high qualitative, environmental, social and innovation standards. Yet, many contracting authorities still favour lowest price criteria as the safest and fastest procedure. As many examples prove that the lowest price does not always mean lowest costs, this model gradually disappears and is being replaced by extended requirements and criteria.

New procurement legislation on international, European and national level recommend or even demand the use of the most economically advantageous tendering (MEAT) instead of simply accepting the lowest price. This new approach ensures taking into consideration two important aspects: quality and overall costs including guarantees and maintenance. Due to the successive harmonisation of national public procurement regulations with new international and EU law, setting additional criteria and standards has already become or will soon become intrinsically tied to every tendering procedure including contracts below EU thresholds.

Applying the MEAT-approach as well as meeting the new procurement standards requires contracting authorities to use independent, transparent and professional procedures as well as proven evaluation methods. Authorities need to carefully decide how to set criteria and how to evaluate and justify which tender is economically most advantageous. It also means that by the new procurement standards, public officers will be exposed to a range of new risks and will bear a greater responsibility for their actions and decisions. Therefore, setting clear criteria and performing a measurable and transparent bid evaluation are crucial to guard oneself against possible later accusations of making subjective choices or of collusive or corrupt behaviour. Even more important for the public officers involved is to learn how to give a proven and strong explanation for their decisions for setting criteria and evaluating bids.

This seminar will give you an opportunity to advance your skills on setting clear criteria and ensuring a transparent tender evaluation. Moreover, you will learn how to provide a comprehensive description and documentation of your methodology and procedure for awarding and evaluation criteria in order to stay transparent while choosing the most economically advantageous or lowest costs tender. Through case studies and workshops you will boost your knowledge and hands-on experience regarding secure and transparent public procurements in your contracting authority.

Directors, Heads of Department or Unit, Procurement Managers and Officers, Internal and External Auditors, Case Handlers and other professionals responsible for procurement and competition in public institutions and organisations such as:

• European institutions and agencies
• International organisations and agencies
• National and regional Ministries and their subordinated bodies and agencies
• Central procurement and purchasing agencies
• City Councils and Communities
• National and regional Development Agencies
• International and national agencies for international aid and development cooperation
• National and regional transport, road and highways agencies
• National and regional Courts of Auditors
• Corruption prevention and combating bureaus
• Higher education and research institutions
• Other bodies responsible fo public procurement

• How to set award criteria and conduct tender evaluation under the new EU and international procurement legislation
• What are the biggest practical challenges of setting the award criteria?
• How to ensure quality by choosing the correct awarding and evaluation criteria
• How to improve transparency and public information policy
• What are the legal and practical implications of the EU public procurement reform on joint procurement and framework agreements?
• What are the new exclusion grounds for tenders under the new rules?
• How can exclusion grounds be applied in practice?
• How to develop an evaluation matrix suitable to compare bids
• How to prevent risks, irregularities and fraud in tendering procedures
• Which methodology can be used to justify the decision for a respective bid evaluation?
• How to define bid evaluation criteria to avoiding most common mistakes

• Make sure that your awarding criteria precisely describe the goods or services you need
• Overcome your uncertainty when not choosing the lowest price tendering
• Train how to deal with difficulties in judging the most economically advantageous tender (MEAT)
• Learn how to ensure the right balance in assessing and evaluating prices
• Learn how to deal with the new European requirements on innovation, environmental and social standards
• Learn how to evaluate and choose the right tenderer
• Ensure that your bid evaluation is documented in a clear and transparent way
• Exchange experiences with peers from other Member States dealing with the same challenges