Public procurement
Partner specialising in public procurement/Legal counsel in the field of public procurement
Quality assurance
Review of the tender documents
Are you about to compete for an important public contract? How do you increase your prospects of winning a public procurement? Before you decide to submit a tender, we can help you review the tender documents and highlight risks and ambiguities. Tendering costs money and time and thus questions that change the specifications can make a difference.
Quality assurance of tenders
Before submitting a tender, we can quality control the supplier’s tender. This review allows you to correct any unclarities or matters that have not been answered correctly. In this way, we ensure that you fulfil all requirements and receive the highest possible evaluation score and that an important deal is not lost due to an oversight. We therefore check that all documents are attached, that all requirements are met and that you receive the highest possible evaluation score based on your circumstances.
Questions and answers
During the publication period of the procurement, you have the opportunity to put questions to the contracting authorities. Any ambiguities must be pointed out during the publication period so that you can exercise your rights. In the case of a judicial review, a supplier must have pointed out the ambiguities that it later wishes to challenge.
It can sometimes be difficult for a tenderer to obtain a change to a requirement during a procurement procedure, even if the requirement is disproportionate, for example. We have experience as former procurers and can therefore help to reach the procurer and sometimes propose alternative solutions. We ask questions and can liaise with the procurer to ensure the tender’s requirements align with the public procurement legislation.
Tactical pricing
Pricing models rarely match the real market as weighting is usually simulated. In such cases, you need to examine the possibility of submitting a tactical price without the risk of the tender being rejected as abnormally low.
Quality control of procurement documents and evaluation models
We also assist contracting authorities during the procurement process to ensure that the procurement documentation is clear, predictable and treats suppliers equally. As our client base, in the legal field of public procurement, mainly consists of suppliers, we have a high level of expertise and understanding of what requirements are appropriate to set to ensure that competition is utilised and that the result of the procurement is businesslike.
Legal and strategic advice
Strategic dialogue with the procurer
The public sector is always in need of goods, services and constructions. The market is attractive in both good and more challenging times. To increase the chances of winning procurement contracts, dialogue with the procurer is a key success factor. With a sound dialogue, you can impact the requirements set out in the tender and increase your chances of winning. We support you in engaging in a good and strategic dialogue with the procurer before, during and after the procurement. We help you to reach out to the procurer by, for example, providing information sheets on your specific sector or organising information meetings for contracting authorities.
Legal advice
Does your business need commercial legal advice in public procurement? We can advise you on how to deal with complex legal issues in public procurement and related areas of law, such as public access and secrecy, administrative law and tort law.
Safeguarding your business’s confidential information
A tender and its annexes submitted to a public authority normally become a public document. Official documents can become public and be disclosed to a competitor. We can help you draft a confidentiality request to ensure that your business is protected and that confidential information does not end up with your competitors.
Changes in the organisation
When an organisation changes due to a transfer of company ownership or corporate restructuring such as mergers, actions need to be taken to ensure that the organisation does not lose its public procurement contracts. If a company’s corporate registration number changes, the procurement contracts of the business being merged into or transferred to the new company must be transferred. If a proper transfer does not take place, the procurement contract can be cancelled by the contracting authorities. If a merger takes place during an ongoing procurement procedure and the company submitting the tender has been merged into another company, there is no valid tender. We can provide guidance on this and draft transfer agreements.
Review and appeal
Did your company lose a public procurement contract but think the authority’s decision is wrong? We help suppliers request remedies and assist in reviewing the validity of procurements and contracts, as well as appealing against decisions not to disclose official documents.
Re-examination of the contract award decision
Before a review can be considered, the supplier can request rectification of the award decision, i.e. that the contracting authorities reconsider their previous decision. Instead of submitting a review to the administrative court, we have assisted with several requests for rectification and engaged in a dialogue with the procurer regarding the award decision. This often leads to the decision being rectified.
Review of a procurement procedure
In the event of a review, the procurement can either be corrected or cancelled. In most instances, an application for review must be made within 10 days of the award decision. A review must be lodged within the deadline to ensure the application is accepted. It is therefore very urgent, so please contact us directly. We will initially investigate what potential you have to obtain a favourable decision regarding an application for review.
Invalidation of contracts
It is occasionally the case that the parties to a public procurement contract make substantial modifications to the contract. If substantial modifications are made to a public procurement contract, the contract may be declared null and void and the procurement must be repeated. In such cases, there may be grounds to review the validity of the contract. Such a review must take place within six months of the contract being signed or the amendment being made. We have experience in these types of procedures.
Request for access to an official document
It is not unusual for the contracting authority to not always recognise that the tenderer does not meet all the requirements of the contract. To ensure your rights, competitors’ tenders should be requested and reviewed. We will assist you in requesting relevant evaluation documents, e-mail correspondence and competitors’ tenders. If the documents are subject to secrecy, we can also assist you in your appeal to the Administrative Court of Appeal.
Defending the procurement
We also have experience of supporting contracting authorities in appeals to ‘defend the procurement’. We help the contracting authority to conduct the process, either as counsel or through legal support. We can also support the supplier awarded a contract by providing legal advice to the contracting authority.
Courses in public procurement
Our staff are also experienced course lecturers in public procurement. If you would like to learn more about this area of law, you can book a spot on one of our open courses or contact us to discuss in-house courses tailored to your company’s needs.
Find out more about our courses here.
