Published: 2010-05-20
Key Benefits:
Passed 06.05.2010 Annex 56
The regulation is enacted on the basis of § 8(3), § 51(7) and § 55(6) of the «Public Procurement Act».
The Regulation establishes:
1) the procedure for the electronic submission of tenders and requests to participate in procurement procedures;
2) the terms of and procedure for the establishment and use of a dynamic purchasing system, and the procedure for the award of public contracts under a dynamic purchasing system;
3) the procedure for carrying out electronic auctions;
4) the requirements for the equipment for electronic submission of tenders and requests to participate in procurement procedures and for carrying out electronic auctions.
(1) A contracting authority may require that tenders and requests to participate in a procurement procedure are submitted only electronically or combined with other media.
(2) A contracting authority shall not require that tenders and requests to participate in a procurement procedure are submitted electronically in such a format which prevents interested persons from participating in the procurement procedure.
(3) A contracting authority shall not charge for the electronic submission of tenders and requests to participate in a procurement procedure, for the use of a dynamic purchasing system, or for the participation in an electronic auction.
(4) A contracting authority shall not use a dynamic purchasing system or an electronic auction to harm, restrict or distort competition.
In applying the rules of procedure, a contracting authority shall follow the Public Procurement Act and this Regulation insofar as not otherwise provided by the Public Procurement Act.
In electronic communication, a contracting authority shall follow section 55 of the Public Procurement Act.
(1) If a contracting authority requires electronic submission of tenders and requests to participate in a procurement procedure, the contracting authority shall disclose in the contract notice or contract documents the information necessary for electronic submission of tenders and requests to participate in the procurement procedure as well as the technical requirements therefor, including as regards to encryption if the contracting authority requires encryption of the documents.
(2) For the purposes of this Regulation, encryption means electronic modification of a document using the public key of the recipient's certificate which meets the requirements of the Digital Signatures Act, so that the significant content of the document would not be accessible by unauthorised persons.
(3) A contracting authority shall require that a tenderer or applicant encrypt an electronically submitted tender or request to participate in a procurement procedure if the confidentiality of the tenders and requests to participate in a procurement procedure has not been guaranteed otherwise, and if it has not been guaranteed that the contracting authority can open the tenders and requests to participate in a procurement procedure as well as examine the contents thereof only after the time limit for the submission thereof has expired.
(4) A contracting authority shall guarantee that a tenderer or applicant who has submitted a tender or a request to participate in a procurement procedure will immediately receive an electronic notification that the tenders and requests to participate in a procurement procedure were successfully submitted.
(5) If a contracting authority detects technical faults in the functioning of the electronic equipment used for submitting and receiving tenders and requests to participate in a procurement procedure due to which it is impossible to electronically submit tenders or requests to participate in a procurement procedure, the contracting authority shall extend the time limits by a reasonable amount of time based on subsection 35(9) of the Public Procurement Act.
(6) If the original time limit expires before the publication of an amended contract notice in the State Public Procurement Register (hereinafter register) or before the communication of amended contract documents to all of the tenderers and to those applicants and interested persons who have obtained the contract documents, the contracting authority shall declare the procurement procedure invalid.
(7) The contracting authority shall immediately notify participants in the procurement procedure of extension of time limits and declaration of invalidity of the procurement procedure.
(1) An electronically submitted tender and request to participate in a procurement procedure shall be submitted in a format which meets the requirements specified in the contract notice or contract documents.
(2) If a tender and request to participate in a procurement procedure include original documents which cannot be submitted electronically, these shall be submitted, in addition to electronic copies, on paper prior to the due date of submission of tenders and requests to participate in a procurement procedure specified by the contracting authority.
(1) A person designated by the contracting authority shall open electronically submitted tenders and requests to participate in a procurement procedure after the date specified by the contracting authority.
(2) If there are several persons designated by the contracting authority, they shall open tenders and requests to participate in a procurement procedure as a result of a simultaneous act after the date specified by the contracting authority.
(3) If the contracting authority cannot open tenders or requests to participate in a procurement procedure after the date specified by the contracting authority due to technical faults in the functioning of the electronic equipment used, the contracting authority shall postpone the opening until the technical faults have been repaired and shall immediately notify the participants in the procurement procedure of the postponement and of the changed time of the opening.
A dynamic purchasing system shall be established for a term of up to four years if a longer term is not, given the object of the dynamic purchasing system, objectively necessary or justified.
When creating a dynamic purchasing system and awarding public contracts on the basis thereof, a contracting authority shall follow the rules of open procedure provided for in the Public Procurement Act, including subsections 58(2) and (3) of the Public Procurement Act and Chapters 2 and 3 of this Regulation.
Before commencing a procurement procedure a contracting authority shall draw up electronic contract documents which shall include in addition to that provided for in section 31 of the Public Procurement Act also information concerning the technical connections and solutions used in the dynamic purchasing system application.
(1) A contracting authority shall submit to the register a contract notice to be published, notifying of the establishment of a dynamic purchasing system and of the period of use thereof. The contracting authority shall also add a reference to a website where it shall guarantee unlimited and complete electronic access to the contract documents and to other documents starting from the publication of the contract notice until the end of the period of use of the dynamic purchasing system.
(2) If a contracting authority intends to organise an electronic auction in awarding public contracts on the basis of a dynamic purchasing system, the contracting authority shall notify thereof in the contract notice. In organising an electronic auction the contracting authority shall follow Chapter 4.
(1) In order to award a public contract on the basis of a dynamic purchasing system a contracting authority shall submit a simplified contract notice of the dynamic purchasing system according to form to be published in the register, inviting all interested persons to submit an electronic indicative tender for joining the dynamic purchasing system. The time limit for submitting an indicative tender may not be shorter than 15 days as of the publication of a simplified contract notice in the register.
(2) In receiving an indicative tender the contracting authority shall verify whether the financial and economic standing and the technical and professional ability of a tenderer comply with the qualification criteria specified in the contract notice, and whether the submitted indicative tender complies with the criteria specified in the contract notice and contract documents within 15 days pursuant to the provisions of the Public Procurement Act. The said time limit may be extended if the contracting authority has not submitted an invitation to tender.
(3) A tenderer has the right to renew a submitted indicative tender within the period of use of the dynamic purchasing system, provided it complies with the technical specifications prepared by the contracting authority.
(4) A contracting authority shall electronically notify a tenderer of a decision to join or refuse to join the tenderer with the dynamic purchasing system within three working days after making of the decision.
(1) After evaluating all indicative tenders submitted in a timely manner the contracting authority shall invite all the tenderers who have been included in the dynamic purchasing system to tender in respect of each specific public contract which will be awarded on the basis of the dynamic purchasing system. An invitation to tender shall include the information specified in subsection 31(2) of the Public Procurement Act which is necessary for submitting tenders and for properly carrying out the public procurement and which has not been set out in the contract notice. A contracting authority shall submit an invitation to tender electronically.
(2) A contracting authority shall determine in the invitation to tender a reasonable time limit for submitting tenders. Tenders shall be submitted electronically.
In opening tenders a contracting authority shall follow section 7.
A public contract shall be awarded to the tenderer who, based on the criteria of evaluation of tenders established in the contract notice, submitted a tender with the lowest price or the most economically advantageous tender according to subsections 50(2) and (3) of the Public Procurement Act.
(1) A contracting authority shall submit a public procurement report to the register via the register's website within the term provided for in subsection 37(1) of the Public Procurement Act after the award of each public contract or within 45 days after the end of each quarter concerning public contracts awarded within the quarter.
(2) After the termination of each public contract, the contracting authority shall submit to the register an annex to the public procurement report according to subsection 37(4) of the Public Procurement Act.
(1) A contracting authority may organise an electronic auction in the event of an open procedure and a restricted procedure and in the event of a negotiated procedure in a situation specified in clause 27(2)1) of the Public Procurement Act, on the condition that the object of the public contract can be described accurately. As a result, an electronic auction may not be organised upon awarding a public services contract or a public works contract whose object is an intellectual activity.
(2) An electronic auction may also be used for the award of a public contract upon organising a competition between the tenderers who are the parties to a framework agreement and in the event of a dynamic purchasing system.
(3) An electronic auction shall be based:
1) solely on the values of tenders if the contracting authority awards the public contract based on the tender with the lowest price, or
2) on the values of tenders or other numerically expressed criteria of tender evaluation if the contracting authority awards the public contract based on the most economically advantageous tender.
(4) The requirements provided for in subsection 55(5) of the Public Procurement Act shall not be applied to the submission of the tenders in the course of an electronic auction.
(1) A contracting authority shall notify of carrying out an electronic auction in the contract notice.
(2) In carrying out an electronic auction the contract notice or contract documents shall additionally include at least the information provided for in subsection 31(8) of the Public Procurement Act.
(3) If a contracting authority has notified of carrying out an electronic auction, the contracting authority is required to carry out the electronic auction, unless only one tender that is declared admissible is submitted.
(4) If an electronic auction or a stage thereof is unsuccessful due to a technical fault detected by the contracting authority in the functioning of the electronic equipment used for carrying out the auction, the contracting authority shall cancel the auction or a stage thereof and shall determine new dates for carrying out the auction. The contracting authority shall immediately notify the participants in the procurement procedure of the new dates or of the cancellation of the auction or a stage thereof.
(1) Before starting an electronic auction, the contracting authority shall verify the compliance of tenders with the terms provided for in the contract notice and contract documents and, if the contracting authority submits an invitation to tender pursuant to the procedure provided for in the Public Procurement Act, in the said invitation. If the contracting authority awards the public contract on the basis of the most economically advantageous tender, the contracting authority shall evaluate the tenders before starting the auction on the basis of the evaluation criteria of tenders and their relative weight.
(2) An electronic auction shall not be started before two working days have passed after the tenderers were forwarded an invitation to the electronic auction.
(1) A contracting authority shall send to all tenderers who have submitted a tender which has been declared admissible an electronic invitation to submit electronically a new value or other indicator which can be expressed numerically.
(2) An invitation to an electronic auction shall include at least the following information:
1) the relevant information about establishing a connection with the electronic auction environment;
2) the start date and time of the electronic auction;
3) the schedule of every stage of the electronic auction if the electronic auction takes place in several consecutive stages;
4) the mathematical equation used to automatically recalculate the positions of tenders based on new values or other numerically expressed indicators submitted in the electronic auction;
5) in case tenders with variants are allowed, a separate equation for each variant;
6) the bases for the end of the electronic auction pursuant to section 22.
(3) If the contracting authority awards the public contract on the basis of the most economically advantageous tender, the invitation to an electronic auction shall include, in addition to that provided for in subsection (2), the results of the evaluation of the tenderer's tender which have been calculated on the basis of the evaluation criteria of tenders described in the contract notice or contract documents and their relative weight.
(4) The equation specified in clause (2)4) expresses the relative weight of the evaluation criteria of tenders described in the contract notice or contract documents and used to determine the most economically advantageous tender. For that purpose, all ranges are previously reduced to a specified value.
(1) In every stage of an electronic auction the contracting authority shall disclose to all tenderers:
1) information which allows them to ascertain their relative ranking in a specific stage of the electronic auction;
2) the submitted values or other numerically expressed indicators which are the object of the auction;
3) the number of the participating tenderers.
(2) Disclosure of the person of a tenderer is not allowed in any stage of the electronic auction.
An electronic auction ends:
1) on the date and at the time previously specified in the invitation to the electronic auction;
2) when tenderers no longer submit new values or other numerically expressed indicators. The contracting authority shall set out in the invitation to the electronic auction the period of time after which the electronic auction shall be deemed ended if new values or numerically expressed indicators are not submitted;
3) when all the stages of the electronic auction specified in the invitation to the electronic auction have been carried out.
(1) Negotiations after the end of an electronic auction are not allowed.
(2) A public contract shall be awarded to the tenderer who, based on the criteria of evaluation of tenders established in the contract notice or contract documents and based on the results of an electronic auction, submitted a tender with the lowest price or the most economically advantageous tender according to subsections 50(2) and (3) of the Public Procurement Act.
(1) The equipment used for electronic submission of tenders and requests to participate in a procurement procedure and for carrying out an electronic auction shall be generally available and technically compatible with common information and communication technology products, and shall not restrict, without reason, the participation of interested persons in the procurement procedure.
(2) For the purposes of this Regulation, electronic equipment is electronic means, together with the support infrastructure and software solutions, used for processing and saving electronically transmitted and received data.
(3) The equipment for electronic submission of tenders and requests to participate in a procurement procedure and the equipment for carrying out an electronic auction shall guarantee:
1) secure data exchange;
2) the exchange and storage of information in a manner which guarantees the integrity and confidentiality of the data;
3) the identification of tenderers and applicants;
4) unlimited access for an supervisory official to the data and the log book of operations for the performance of state supervision.
(4) The equipment for electronic submission of tenders and requests to participate in a procurement procedure shall guarantee, in addition to that provided for in subsection (3), compliance with the requirements provided for in subsection 55(5) of the Public Procurement Act.
Andrus ANSIP
Prime Minister
Jürgen LIGI
Minister of Finance Jürgen
Heiki LOOT
Secretary of State
