EN 11 12 2019 Official Journal of the European Union C 417/23 Box 2.3 Example of dependency on contractors Under several framework contracts with the same company, an agency paid 793 000 euros for the purchase of various types of services (clerical and secretarial support, organisation of events, wellbeing and integration of staff, etc ) This amount represents 37 % of its non-salary related 2018 budget, indicating that the agency is dependent on external resources and on one company This creates a risk to business continuity 2 23 In relation to procurement related internal controls observations (ECDC, EFCA, EIT, EMSA, ERA, Eurofound), we refer to an inter-institutional framework contract for the provision and maintenance of IT equipment put in place by the Commission and used by several agencies The terms of this contract were weak in so far as they allowed the purchase of items not specifically mentioned therein and not subject to an initial competitive procedure It also allowed the contractor to charge uplifts on the prices of items purchased from other suppliers Although agencies have no power to change the basic contractual arrangements, we found that their related ex ante controls did not always check that the contractor offered the most suitable solutions for competitive prices, nor the accuracy of the up-lifts charged by the contractor The weak contractual arrangements in combination with the partially weak internal controls did not ensure best value for money procurements The framework contract has expired in the meantime and the succeeding contract is better designed, thereby addressing our finding Actions to be taken 1 Public procurement errors remain the most frequent type of errors detected through our audits The agencies are encouraged to further improve their public procurement procedures, ensuring full compliance with the applicable rules and best value for money procurements Actions to be taken 2 When using inter-institutional contracts, agencies remain responsible for the application of public procurement principles for their specific purchases AgenciesŐ internal controls must ensure they are respected The use of framework contracts by some of the agencies may limit competition 2 24 Framework contracts are agreements with suppliers to establish terms governing specific purchases during the life of the agreement They are used for a precisely defined subject, but where the exact quantities and delivery times cannot be indicated in advance The main reason for the use of framework contracts is to achieve administrative efficiency and economies of scale However, we identified cases (EASA and EUIPO) where the use of large framework contracts covering a multitude of different services caused a risk to competition This is particularly the case when the actual services to be provided during the lifetime of the agreement cannot be clearly specified at the time of the initial procurement procedures, which is typically the case for services like IT and business consulting Box 2.4 Example of a FWC lacking specifications For the procurement of data analytics services for a volume of up to 5 million euros, one agency chose to use a framework contract with a single operator resulting from an open procedure However, the terms used in the framework contract were not specific enough to allow fair competition, because the concrete requirements concerning the services to be provided were not yet known at the time of the procurement procedure According to the rules of application of the Financial Regulation, in such circumstances, the contracting authority has to award a framework contract to multiple operators and a competitive procedure between the selected contractors must be held for the specific purchases 
(15) K niekoľkým agentúram sme v audítorských správach z minulých rokov vyjadrili podobné pripomienky. SK 11 12 2019 Úradný vestník Európskej únie C 417/23 Rámček 2.3 Príklad závislosti od zmluvných dodávateľov Agentúra na základe niekoľkých rámcových zmlúv uzavretých s tou istou spoločnosťou uhradila 793 000 EUR za nákup rôznych typov služieb (administratívna a sekretárska podpora, organizácia podujatí, kvalita života a integrácia zamestnancov atď.).