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Article 40 of Legislative Decree No 163 of 12 April 2006 establishing the Code on public works contracts, public service contracts and public supply contracts pursuant to Directives 2004/17/EC and 2004/18/EC (Ordinary Supplement to GURI No 100 of 2 May 2006) (‘the code’) provides: ‘(1) Persons carrying out public works in any capacity must be authorised and must ensure that their activities comply with the principles of quality, professionalism and good faith. To that end, the goods, processes, services and quality systems in the undertaking which are used by those persons shall be subject to certification in accordance with the legislation in force. (2) The … regulation shall govern the single certification scheme for any persons carrying out, in any capacity, public works of an amount exceeding EUR 150 000, on the basis of the type and amount of the works. The … regulation also allows the categories of certification to be periodically revised and to provide for possible new categories. (3) The certification scheme shall be implemented by certification bodies governed by private law, authorised for that purpose by the Autorità. The certification activity shall be carried out in compliance with the principle of independent judgment, by ensuring that there are no commercial or financial interests such as to lead to unimpartial or discriminatory behaviour. When performing certification activities in relation to persons carrying out public works, the SOAs shall perform a public law task … . In the event that they issue false certificates, Articles 476 and 479 of the Criminal Code shall apply. Before issuing certificates, the SOAs shall check that the applicant undertaking satisfies all the requisite conditions. The certification bodies shall certify that persons authorised: (a) possess a certificate showing that their quality control system complies with European norms … and with the national legislation in force, issued by accredited bodies in accordance with European norms … The accredited bodies shall register the certificate referred to in this paragraph for undertakings carrying out public works on the official list drawn up at the Italian accreditaion body …; (b) satisfy the general, technical-organisational and economic-financial conditions provided for by the [European Union] provisions applicable to authorisation. The certificates issued by the works managers to undertakings carrying out public works form part of the technical-organisational conditions. … (4) The regulation shall define in particular: … (b) the rules and criteria for authorisation, and the possible lapse thereof, of certification bodies and the personal, organisational, financial and technical conditions to be satisfied by those bodies; (c) the detailed arrangements for testifying that authorised persons possess a quality control system certified in accordance with paragraph 3(a), and that they satisfy the conditions referred to in paragraph 3(b), and the procedures available for checking those conditions annually in the light of data provided by their accounts; (d) the general conditions … and the technical-organisational and economic-financial conditions referred to in paragraph 3(b), including measures concerning the extent and type of works … (e) the criteria for setting tariffs applicable to the certification activities, provided always that minimum tariffs shall not be capable of being derogated from; (f) the rules for checking authorisation; authorisation shall be for a period of five years, a check whether the general conditions and those relating to structural capacity, to be included in the regulation are satisfied, shall be undertaken before the end of the third year; the period of validity of the general and special categories subject to the review referred to in paragraph 2; the tariff for checking that the conditions are satisfied shall be proportionate to the certification tariff, but may not exceed three-fifths of the latter; (fa) in the context of the respective competences, the detailed arrangements for ensuring coordinated supervision of the activities of the certification bodies, by having recourse to structures and resources already available for that purpose, without new or increased expenditure being charged to public finances; (g) financial penalties and prohibitory sanctions, including the lapse of the authorisation, for irregularities and unlawful acts committed by the SOAs when issuing certificates and where the SOAs fail to act following a request for information and documents by the Autorità in the context of its supervisory tasks, in accordance with a criterion of proportionality and the audi alteram partem rule; (ga) the financial penalties referred to in Article 6(11), and prohibitory sanctions, including the lapse of qualification certification, for economic operators which do not reply to requests for information and documents made by the Autorità in the exercise of its power of supervision of the authorisation system, or which provide false information or documents; (h) the establishment, on a regional basis, of lists of persons having obtained the authorisation referred to in paragraph 3; those lists shall be drawn up and maintained by the Autorità, which shall ensure that they are publicised in the Observatoire. … (6) The regulation defines the specific economic-financial and technical-organisational conditions which must be satisfied by candidates for a public works concession who do not intend to carry out the works with their own business organisation. … 9a The SOAs shall be responsible for maintaining the documents and measures used for the purpose of issuing of certificates, after the certification activities have ended. The SOAs shall also provide access to those documents and measures to the persons mentioned in the regulation, including in the event of suspension or lapse of the authorisation of the certification activities; in the event of infringement, the administrative financial penalties provided for in Article 6(11) shall apply. In any event, the SOAs shall remain bound to maintain the documents and measures referred to in the first sentence for a period of 10 years or during the period stated in the regulation … 9b The SOAs shall inform the Autorità of the initiation of the procedure to check the requisite conditions relating to an undertaking and the result thereof. The SOAs shall declare the lapse of the approval certification where they establish that it was issued without the conditions laid down in the regulation having been satisfied or where those conditions are no longer satisfied; in the event of infringement, the Autorità shall declare that the authorisation for the SOA’s certification activities has lapsed. 9c Where a false declaration is made or false documents are presented for the purposes of the authorisation, the SOAs shall inform the Autorità thereof, which, where it considers that there exists fraudulent misrepresentation or gross negligence, having regard to the importance and seriousness of the matters covered by the false declaration or the presentation of the false documents, shall compile a computer record … with a view to excluding them from the tendering and subcontracting procedures, … for a period of one year, after which the registration shall be deleted and shall in any event no longer be effective.’