PRINCIPLE OF TRANSPARENCY AND RIGHT OF ACCESS

tenderers and candidates shall be excluded from participation in procurement procedures if they incur in one of the grounds set out in Article 93 of the Financial Regulation. Contracting Authorities shall establish the necessary verification procedure. Moreover, the procedures will avoid that contracts shall be awarded to tenderers or candidates who, during the procurement procedure for the contract in question find themselves in one of the situations referred to in Article 94 of the Financial Regulation.

tender documents procedures shall define clear pre-established and non-discriminatory selection criteria. The selection criteria shall be applied in every procurement procedure for the purpose of assessing the financial, economic, technical and professional capacity of the Candidate or the Tenderer. Depending on the type of contract to be awarded the Contract Notice and the tender documents or invitation to negotiate shall clearly explain the:

• Terms of Reference: requirements for a Service Contract which accurately define the characteristics of the service required with regard to the purpose for which it is intended and sets out conformity assessment procedures prescribed by a Contracting Authority;

• Technical Specifications: these are the requirements for Supply and Works Contracts that. They set out the characteristics of supplies to be procured, such as quality, performance, safety and dimensions, or the process and methods for their production, or the processes or methods for their provision, including any applicable administrative provisions; address terminology, symbols, packaging, marking or labelling requirements; set out conformity assessment procedures.

Furthermore, a Partner may explicitly prioritize in the selection criteria factors which are otherwise extraneous to the immediate procurement but that contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the Action, such as the support to local livelihoods, support to most vulnerable women-owned businesses or prioritising bids received from disadvantaged groups, etc. These selection criteria can be accepted by the Commission on condition that the link between the objectives of the Action and the procurement strategy are clearly presented and reasoned.

In some cases, restrictive selection criteria (or a particular brand name) may be needed for ensuring compatibility with existing equipment or other equivalent circumstances. In that case, the Contracting Authority has to document the justification in the tender file.

the award criteria shall be weighted, meaning that it should be possible for the Tenderer or Candidate to understand the comparative importance of the different award criteria and to differentiate the more important from the less important criteria. Therefore the award criteria must be defined in such a way that it will be possible subsequently to carry out an evaluation that the contract was properly awarded .