PART 3RULES ON THE PROCUREMENT FOR THE AWARD OF CONCESSION CONTRACTS
CHAPTER 7PROCEDURAL GUARANTEES
Procedural guaranteesI139
1
A concession contract must be awarded on the basis of the award criteria, provided that all of the following conditions are fulfilled—
a
the tender complies with any minimum requirements set by the contracting entity;
b
the tenderer complies with the conditions for participation set out in regulation 41(1) to (3) (selection of and qualitative assessment of candidates); and
c
the tenderer is not excluded from participating in the award procedure in accordance with regulation 40(1) to (9) (exclusion grounds), as read with regulation 40(14) to (18).
2
The contracting entity may limit the number of candidates or tenderers to an appropriate level, on condition that this is done in a transparent manner and on the basis of objective criteria.
3
The number of candidates or tenderers invited must be sufficient to ensure genuine competition.
4
The contracting entity must communicate the following to all participants—
a
the description of the envisaged organisation of the procedure and an indicative completion deadline; and
b
any modification to that procedure or completion deadline.
5
To the extent that any modification referred to in paragraph (4)(b) concerns elements disclosed in the concession notice, the contracting entity must advertise it to all economic operators.
6
The contracting entity must provide for appropriate recording of the stages of the procedure using the means it considers appropriate, subject to regulation 31(1) and (2) (confidentiality).
7
The contracting entity may hold negotiations with candidates and tenderers but the subject-matter of the concession contract, the award criteria and the minimum requirements must not change during the course of any negotiation.
8
In this regulation—
a
“the award criteria” means the award criteria set out by the contracting entity in accordance with regulation 44 (concession contract award criteria);
b
“minimum requirements” mean the conditions and characteristics (in particular any technical, physical, functional and legal conditions and characteristics) that any tender must meet or possess.