Source: http://projectcompass.co.uk/index.php?page=compass&sub=general_guidance&item=15
Timestamp: 2017-05-25 18:10:36
Document Index: 290269058

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 4', 'art 4', 'arts 1', 'art 4', 'arts 1', 'Art 67']

Changes to the Public Contract RegulationsThe Public Contract Regulations 2015 came into effect on 26th February 2015.
Part 4 embodies regulations relating to the establishment and publishing of notices on the national e-procurement portal 'Contracts Finder';
It should be noted that the Regulations do not apply to Scotland whilst the Part 4 provisions don't apply to devolved functions in Wales or N. Ireland.
There is now greater flexibility, and application processes should become simpler, faster and - with the programmed emergence of full e-procurement - more streamlined. SME access has also been addressed and sustainability embedded.
The legislative drafting including, greater reliance on a 'copy out' approach to embodying Directive 2014/24/EU has considerably improved legibility, accessibility, clarity and comprehension for all, which may also be expected to significantly reduce overall procurement costs and recourse to remedies.
The Legislators, especially the UK, the European Parliament and the European Commission, have recognized the most important problems in procuring architects' services: the lack of real competition as a result of the misuse of selection criteria in for example, turnover and number of employees and, last but not least, to focus the awarding decision on price and not on quality.
Public procurement under the regulations will be required to be published on the UK's new National e-Procurement Portal 'Contracts Finder'.
This time around the regulations have been comprehensively digitalised and Parts 1 and 2 are largely 'a copy out' of Directive 2014/24/EU with fewer linguistic and structural amendments to the well worded and better structured EU Directive.
A specific number of items, some of which are described below, have been brought forward to make the regulations more SME friendly. In doing so contracting authorities should be encouraged to make use of the 'European Code of Best Practices Facilitating Access by SMEs to Public Procurement Contracts' 2008, along with the SME Friendliness tool which was produced to help government departments engage with SMEs.
When buying in design or architectural services it is only necessary to consider relevant and mandatory requirements. The regulations are only compulsory where 'shall' is used; 'may' typically means requirements are optional and there is flexibility. Many aspects of the Regulations such as electronic auctions, dynamic purchasing, and electronic catalogues don't apply to professional services and can be disregarded.
This is a clear incentive for contracting authorities to adopt project bank accounts (PBA's), which Crown Commercial Services are now committed to using, as it provides the optimum way with e-procurement to best meet the required objectives. Further guidance on the use of PBAs leading to their full adoption within the e-procurement timescales would be welcome and might be anticipated.
The light regime - low value procurements
If you are interested in procurements below the EU thresholds first start by reading Part 4 of the Regulations - Chapter 8.
These new UK regulations which cover procurement below EU thresholds are specific to the UK and are located towards the end of the document. Although the opening up of below threshold procurement is very welcome this is somewhat confusing for many who might expect these regulations to be placed first and in accordance with the general principles and structure of the EU Directive. The 'copy out' principle in conjunction with conventions for legal transcription haven't been able to extend to adoption of a suitable regulatory prefixing or sub-divisional system which might have addressed this; despite the fact that there is considered to be a significantly more numerous market at lower values and therefore far greater need to access this section with frequency by less qualified procurement personnel. For that reason we have placed these comments here and before Parts 1 & 2.
To open up (digital) access, opportunities and improve transparency, contract award opportunities from central government (where not less than £10,000) or from a sub-central authority (where not less than £25,000) will also now, under regulation 109, be required to be advertised on 'Contracts Finder' with full and unrestricted digital access free of charge to any relevant contract documents.
NO PRE-QUALIFICATION QUESTIONNAIRES (PQQ's)
Consortia can also provide clients a 'one-stop-shop' contractual supply relationship.
A. COMPETITIVE PROCEDURE WITH NEGOTIATION - NEW PROCEDURE
Regulation 29 replaces what was previously known as the 'negotiated procedure'.
B. INNOVATION PARTNERSHIPS - NEW PROCEDURE
As part of a pre-procurement strategy in the preparation of a procurement and prior to embarking on issuing notices authorities are encouraged under regulation 40 to pursue stakeholder and market consultations and engagement to improve the quality and level of understanding, briefs, selection of appropriate criteria, performance and resultant outputs. Stakeholder engagement is evidentially important as a way of ensuring that public outputs better meet expectations upon their delivery. Pre market engagement with designer's can be enabled in a variety of ways either physically or digitally. Where the market might cover a wide geographic area and entail considerable travel time, digital engagements may be most appropriate in the first instance.
Planning is the basis for the subsequent execution of construction works. So as to guarantee a performance that is not solely orientated purely towards the contractors' financial benefit, the architect should be put into a position to act as an independent trustee of the contracting authority. Thus, design and execution of work should also be procured separately [v].
A call for a competition can be made within Prior Information Notices (PIN) for restricted procedures, and competitive procedures by negotiation under regulation 48. This can accelerate clients' selection processes by 30 days or more. Previously PINs had been used to forewarn the market of a client's intended call for a competition which is then placed through issue of a subsequent Contract Notice, but for both these procedures direct calls for competition maybe made via a PIN.
To put more emphasis in assessments on achieving better outputs - including design quality – the structure of PQQs will change within shorter, clearer documents having many standardised requirements, such as those relating to grounds for exclusion and the provision of core relevant information, capable of repeated usage and able to be confirmed by self-declaration (until clients seek verification after shortlisting). This then places greater focus on a contracting authorities ability to provide a brief in response to the outcomes being sought with short intelligent context specific questions along with selection on short form responses. There is nothing that precludes illustrated responses which opens the opportunity at all stages for the assessment of architect's submissions using their primary language.
Intellectual services, such as architects' services, should be chosen on the basis of the best idea and concept; quantitative criteria like turnover and number of employees are no appropriate means of selection. In general, selection criteria should be restricted to the professional qualification and the absolute minimum of additional criteria to guarantee genuine competition.
The criteria for the award of contracts can under regulation 67 (1) can only be made on the basis of the 'Most Economically Advantageous Tender' (MEAT) rather than lowest price. This cost-effectiveness approach may take a variety of forms. But interestingly in MEAT selection, under regulation 67(4), the cost element may also take the form of a fixed price or cost on the basis of which bidders will compete on quality alone as the determining factor.
Regulation 67 (1)-(11) now also provides greater flexibility and no longer appears to preclude clients from using the Brook's method [vii] which can ensure that tenderers meet the highest quality standards, before any financial criteria and price are assessed at contract award stage, and that clients can use staged weighted assessments so long as this is specified in the procurement documents.
Under regulation 113 and 122 Contracting authorities must ensure that all public contracts contain suitable provisions stating that valid undisputed invoices will be paid by the contracting authority within 30 days. Public contracts must also contain a condition requiring contractors to include similar provisions in their contracts, and so on down the supply chain. Additionally, each contracting authority must publish statistics showing the proportion of invoices paid in accordance with these obligations; the total amount of any liability to pay interest which arose during the year; and the total amount of interest actually paid in discharge of any such liability. This figure must be published annually in relation to the previous 12-month period at the end of the authority's accounting year.
[ii] 'Public Procurement in Europe: Cost and Effectiveness' prepared for the European Commission by London Economics, PWC and Ecorys Research and Consulting, March 2011 pp80 (Fig 2.3); Building Ladders of Opportunity How reforming construction procurement can drive growth in the UK economy, RIBA 2012, p21 (Fig.8),
[iii] See for example „Finanzamt Ludwigburg – Umbau und Neubau“, published by the Ministry of Finance, Baden- Württemberg Juni 1999; Hochbau des Bundes Wirtschaftlichkeit bei Baumaßnahmen, Empfehlungen für das wirtschaftliche Planen und Ausführen von Hochbaumaßnahmen des Bundes, Hrsg.:; Die Präsidentin des Bundesrechnungshofes (Federal Court of Auditors) als Bundesbeauftragte für Wirtschaftlichkeit in derVerwaltung, Bonn März 2001, S 63; Jahresbericht 2000 des Landesrechnungshofes Rheinland---Pfalz (Court Of Auditors) Tz. 26
[iv] European Public Procurement Legislation and Architects' Services: Recommendations and Guidelines for Transposition into National Law. Adopted by the ACE General Assembly on 24 April 2014. pp 4,5
"With regards to these matters in relationship to building design and planning.
The definition of the project is the first step in the procurement procedure. It is a critical phase, especially as the contracting authority has to make initial decisions which will be of considerable importance for the overall procurement process. The project is defined in the brief either using the contracting authorities' own resources or with the assistance of experts (architects). The quality of the brief is vital for the results of the procedure in functional and economic terms.
A crucial moment in setting the course for the project is the decision on whether to award design and execution of work separately or jointly. The European legislator has decided to leave the decision for joint or separate contract awards to the contracting authority ….. “However, in view of the diversity of public works contracts, contracting authorities should be able to make provision for contracts for the design and execution of work to be awarded either separately or jointly. This Directive is not intended to prescribe either joint or separate contract awards.” On the other hand, the legislator has taken the decision to set the division of contracts into lots as a principle. Under Article 46, there is an obligation to provide an indication of the main reasons for their decision not to subdivide into lots. In Whereas 78 it is clearly stated that “where the contracting authority decides that it would not be appropriate to divide the contract into lots, the individual report or the procurement documents should contain an indication of the main reasons for the contracting authority's choice. Such reasons could for instance be that the contracting authority finds that such division could risk restricting competition, or risk rendering the execution of the contract excessively technically difficult or expensive, or that the need to coordinate the different contractors for the lots could seriously risk undermining the proper execution of the contract.”
Furthermore, it is stated that “public procurement should be adapted to the needs of SMEs. Contracting authorities should be encouraged to make use of the Code of Best Practices set out in the Commission Staff Working Document of 25 June 2008 entitled 'European Code of Best Practices Facilitating Access by SMEs to Public Procurement Contracts', providing guidance on how they may apply the public procurement framework in a way that facilitates SME participation. To that end and to enhance competition, contracting authorities should in particular be encouraged to divide large contracts into lots.
In addition to that, the legislator has permitted that Member States may even render it obligatory to award contracts in the form of separate lots under conditions to be specified in accordance with their national law and having regard for Union law."
[vii] The Brooks Method, modelled on the European double envelope method, considers core competency criteria, followed by an assessment of quality and finally financial criteria and price. 'Guidance for Clients on the Brooks Method of Architect Selection' RIBA Publications 1995. Directive 2014/24 Art 67.5 (3)
[ix] Based on Project Compass's research that evaluated cost ranges based on time charges across standard professional levels (director, partner, architect, assistant, support etc) derived from RIBA recommended salary levels as published in 2013. This was applied to a fee bid matrix assumed identical in all other respects (time & professional capability) and having an identical output to conform to a brief. A range of industry profit and overhead levels were applied over and above base, with an assumptions that there would be either 5 or 3 fee bids (under the EU procedures for the ITT stage shortlist).
Permutations on these were evaluated on various value and time ranges eg cost, time and efficiency 1 was high, 1 median and 1 low; 2 high, 2 median and 1 low etc. on the basis that those getting to shortlisting had track record - to develop the assessment of what was a competitive range to deliver the outputs. A hi-lo range about the mean of the order of 18 or 16% was derived, with a contingently conservative hi-lo range of 25%, or 12% (rounded) when reported as the value below the mean.©2013 - 2017 Project Compass CIC, Registered in England no. 08529139Follow @ProjCompassEU