Directive 2014/24/EU of the European Parliament and of the CouncilShow full title

Article 32 U.K. Use of the negotiated procedure without prior publication

1. In the specific cases and circumstances laid down in paragraphs 2 to 5, Member States may provide that contracting authorities may award public contracts by a negotiated procedure without prior publication.

2. The negotiated procedure without prior publication may be used for public works contracts, public supply contracts and public service contracts in any of the following cases:

(a) where no tenders or no suitable tenders or no requests to participate or no suitable requests to participate have been submitted in response to an open procedure or a restricted procedure, provided that the initial conditions of the contract are not substantially altered and that a report is sent to the Commission where it so requests.

A tender shall be considered not to be suitable where it is irrelevant to the contract, being manifestly incapable, without substantial changes, of meeting the contracting authority’s needs and requirements as specified in the procurement documents. A request for participation shall be considered not to be suitable where the economic operator concerned is to be or may be excluded pursuant to Article 57 or does not meet the selection criteria set out by the contracting authority pursuant to Article 58;

(b) where the works, supplies or services can be supplied only by a particular economic operator for any of the following reasons:

(i)

the aim of the procurement is the creation or acquisition of a unique work of art or artistic performance;

(ii)

competition is absent for technical reasons;

(iii)

the protection of exclusive rights, including intellectual property rights;

The exceptions set out in points (ii) and (iii) shall only apply when no reasonable alternative or substitute exists and the absence of competition is not the result of an artificial narrowing down of the parameters of the procurement;

(c) in so far as is strictly necessary where, for reasons of extreme urgency brought about by events unforeseeable by the contracting authority, the time limits for the open or restricted procedures or competitive procedures with negotiation cannot be complied with. The circumstances invoked to justify extreme urgency shall not in any event be attributable to the contracting authority.

3. The negotiated procedure without prior publication may be used for public supply contracts:

(a) where the products involved are manufactured purely for the purpose of research, experimentation, study or development; however, contracts awarded pursuant to this point shall not include quantity production to establish commercial viability or to recover research and development costs;

(b) for additional deliveries by the original supplier which are intended either as a partial replacement of supplies or installations or as the extension of existing supplies or installations where a change of supplier would oblige the contracting authority to acquire supplies having different technical characteristics which would result in incompatibility or disproportionate technical difficulties in operation and maintenance; the duration of such contracts as well as that of recurrent contracts shall not, as a general rule, exceed three years;

(c) for supplies quoted and purchased on a commodity market;

(d) for the purchase of supplies or services on particularly advantageous terms, from either a supplier which is definitively winding up its business activities, or the liquidator in an insolvency procedure, an arrangement with creditors, or a similar procedure under national laws or regulations.

4. The negotiated procedure without prior publication may be used for public service contracts, where the contract concerned follows a design contest organised in accordance with this Directive and is to be awarded, under the rules provided for in the design contest, to the winner or one of the winners of the design contest; in the latter case, all winners must be invited to participate in the negotiations.

5. The negotiated procedure without prior publication may be used for new works or services consisting in the repetition of similar works or services entrusted to the economic operator to which the same contracting authorities awarded an original contract, provided that such works or services are in conformity with a basic project for which the original contract was awarded pursuant to a procedure in accordance with Article 26(1). The basic project shall indicate the extent of possible additional works or services and the conditions under which they will be awarded.

As soon as the first project is put up for tender, the possible use of this procedure shall be disclosed and the total estimated cost of subsequent works or services shall be taken into consideration by the contracting authorities when they apply Article 4.

This procedure may be used only during the three years following the conclusion of the original contract.