At present, there are more and more occasions in which the public sector must resort to the private sector to provide specific goods and services. Therefore, the public tender was constituted so that the administration could obtain the best conditions. of purchase for a particular project or work.
It is a contest between suppliers to acquire a good or service requested by an administration. In this process, the contracting party invites the different interested parties to formulate their proposals based on the established bases. Will choose the most advantageous through the adjudication.
This process will be governed by specific legal requirements that constitute its validity, ensuring greater transparency, legality, and equality among the participants.
How a Public Tender Works
When submitting a public tender, it is essential to take into account the documentation that must provide along with the application, which can be consulted in the specifications corresponding to the tender and may vary depending on the type of tender.
Next, we quote the most recurrent documentation. In general terms, we may consider the following documentation necessary:
- Deeds of incorporation of the company, duly registered in the Mercantile Registry, and subsequent modifications (if any). Credit card of the CIF or DNI.
- Registration in IAE and legal permits: The epigraph in which the company is registered must coincide with the object of the tender.
- Company Classification File: The average period for obtaining this file is three months, and you can make the request electronically on the Ministry’s website.
- Data relating to the economic and financial solvency of the company.
Below we present the relationship of the minimum solvency for each category of the classification.
Certificate of being up to date with the payment of Social Security contributions. Certificate of being up to date with payment of tax obligations.
Declaration of not incurring in incompatibilities. Also, the tender specifications usually include a model declaration for this type—receipt of having made the provisional guarantee (if requested in the contract). Submit deposits: Provisional and execution warrant.
According to the Administration, some have their model. It is essential to submit the required documentation within the established delivery period; failure to do so may result in non-access to the tender. Presentation of proposals: The proposals must include the documentation mentioned above, the technical proposal, the economic proposal, and the rest of the documentation required by the particular administrative clause specifications.
What Companies Can Apply?
Submitting to a competition called by the Administration is an excellent opportunity for companies to increase their activity. Therefore, defining their specialty and what public procurement offers they are likely to cover is essential. In general, there is a tendency to fall into the mistaken belief that these public tenders are only accessible to large companies, which is not the case since there are many occasions in which the company’s size is not so important, but instead its specialization.
How Does the Selection Procedure Work?
Presentation of the offer-Preparation of envelopes The form of expression of the proposal or offer is indicated in the specifications of particular administrative clauses where detailed indications are found. The documents must be presented in independent envelopes since their content is different. Must submit three envelopes; they must be sealed, signed, and identified as 1, 2, and 3 indicating the tender they are participating in and the contracting file number.
These envelopes must contain Administrative Documentation. Technical documentation will include the documents with the information that meets the evaluation criteria of the offers that will require a value judgment.
Documentation refers to evaluable criteria by applying formulas automatically. Suppose, during the adjudication process, the proposal or candidacy is unduly withdrawn. In that case, it incurs the prohibition of contracting with the Public Administration, not being able to attend future tenders of any contracting body of the public sector.
The competent public body may request guarantees that demonstrate that the company is qualified to carry out the project or work invited. Public tenders usually bring these guarantees among their requirements, differentiating between the provisional and the definitive guarantee.
Temporary guarantee: The public body that puts a project out to tender may demand from the bidders a guarantee that responds to the maintenance of their offers until the project is awarded to a company.
Will determine the amount of this guarantee will determine the amount of this provisional guarantee in the specifications, which can never be greater than 3% of the total budget of the contract. Will retain it until the constitution of the definitive guarantee and the companies that unjustifiably withdraw the proposal will seize the award. Once the tender is awarded, the guarantee will expire and be returned to the bidders.
Definitive Guarantee: Those companies that present an economically very advantageous offer in the tenders must make available to the corresponding body a guarantee of 5% of the total amount of the award of the contract. To present these guarantees can be done in three ways: Cash or Public Debt securities. Through surety insurance contract. Through endorsement.
Technical guarantees can be requested from a financial institution on a provisional basis until the public body awards the tender. It works so that if the company cannot present that guarantee, it can resort to this system so that an entity presents it for it.
Assessment and Award Proposal
The award process is carried out through a Contracting Committee, a body that assists the contracting body of the Public Administrations.
The composition of the table will be published through the profile of the contracting authority at least seven days in advance before the meeting, all of which will also have to be published in the BOE, in the regional bulletin, or in that of the province, depending on the scope of action of the contracting entity, if the said composition is permanent or the same table is constituted to resolve several contracts.
The criteria by which the contracting table will be governed to assess the proposals must appear in the administrative clause specifications.
Award Announcement
It will be the contracting authority that communicates the bidder that has been chosen as the provisional winner and must submit the requested documentation within 10 days.
Suppose, once the award has been transmitted, the successful bidder withdraws from the offer and does not present the pertinent documentation. In that case, he will be prohibited from contracting with the Public Administration and, therefore, will not be able to offer himself for future tenders. Once the documentation has been submitted, the Contracting Authority awards the contract within 5 days.
Where can the published tenders be consulted, and in what state are they found? In the first place, the tender announcements are published in the contracting authority’s profile and the Official State Gazette; in the case of Autonomous Administrations, local entities, or public law entities, they can be published in their corresponding regional bulletins. Or provincial without the need to post it in the BOE, so when consulting the other tender announcements and at what point in the process they are, you can use the following portals:
Public Sector Procurement Platform: This platform allows you to consult the tenders published in the contractor’s profiles hosted on it; in the tenders section, you can consult the latest published tenders, also having the option of guided search or search through the search form, in it, you can check its status, the last document published and its update date.
Autonomous contracting platforms: The contracting bodies of the Bodies linked to the Autonomous Communities and EELLs may choose to publish their Contractor Profile on the Public Sector Contracting Platform or maintain their contracting party profile.
Infocif’s advanced tender search engine: Infocif ‘s advanced tender manager allows real-time access to all new Public Tenders and Contracts, providing all the information integrated into a single click; you can filter the data according to the interests of each user, from the type of ad or type of Administration, the largest awardees, the largest awardees, to publication dates and amount.
