Tender stages
Depending on the procedure type there are next tender stages present:
Enquiry period
This stage is set apart separately only in Sub-threshold procurements. In all other procurement types, the enquiry period is part of the proposal submission stage.
At this stage, registered users can:
- address questions to the Customer
- submit claims regarding violations of the tender conditions
Call for proposals
At this stage, participants can:
- submit a proposal
- address questions to the Customer
- submit claims regarding violations of the tender conditions
- submit complaints to the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine regarding the tender conditions
How to submit a complaint or claim?
Prequalification
Present in the following procedures:
- Open procurement published in English
- Competitive dialogue
- ESCO procedure
At this stage, the Customer carries out a preliminary qualification of participants' proposals to check their compliance with the qualification criteria defined in the tender documentation.
The Customer either admits the participant to the Auction stage (or to the second stage of the Competitive dialogue), or disqualifies them from further participation.
Prequalification (complaint period)
Reference
On the stage diagram on the tender page, the «Prequalification (complaint period)» stage is not shown as a separate block. The user will be notified of the start of the complaint period by a corresponding information window on the diagram.
After the Prequalification stage ends, a period for appealing its results begins, lasting 5 days.
At this stage, participants can:
- submit claims to the Customer, or complaints to the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine, regarding the Customer's decision not to admit a participant to the auction (disqualification)
How to submit a complaint or claim?
Auction
At this stage, participants take part in the Auction. During the auction, participants can lower their proposals.
The link to the auction will be sent to the participant's email address, and will also be available in the lot block on the tender page, in the relevant field:
For information on how to take part in the auction, watch the instructional video from Prozorro at this link
Advice
Please note that in the auction, the last bid is made by the participant with the lowest price proposal.
That is, if your price proposal is the lowest among the other participants, you will be the last one to make a lowering bid.
This carries a significant advantage: by the time it is your turn to place an updated bid within an auction round, you will already know the updated bids of the other participants, and so you will be able to lower your proposal to just below the current winning (lowest) level.
If, following a round, your bid turns out to be higher than that of any other participant, you will no longer have the opportunity to bid last, since that advantage will pass to the participant with the lowest price proposal.
Qualification
The lowest proposal price is not always a guarantee of winning the tender (lot), since besides price, the participant must also be qualified by the Customer as meeting all the qualification criteria defined in the tender documentation, as well as the requirements set out in the Law.
Based on the results of the auction, participants' proposals are ranked from the lowest to the highest price proposal.
The Customer sequentially reviews the submitted proposal documents of participants, in order from the lowest offered price to the highest.
If the Participant's proposal with the lowest price meets the Customer's requirements and the other qualification criteria defined by the Law, that participant is declared the Winner. If it does not, the Customer rejects that proposal and evaluates the next one.
Why does a participant need to be re-checked for qualification, if they were already qualified at the Prequalification stage (for certain procedures)?
One example is as follows:
After the auction, the Participant determined to be the winner may upload additional documents (certificates) to their proposal, in accordance with Article 17 of the Law of Ukraine «On Public Procurement».
For example: a certificate of no criminal record, a certificate confirming no outstanding tax debts, and others.
These documents are checked by the Customer for compliance with the Law and the tender documentation. Based on the results of this check, the Participant chosen as the winner may be disqualified. In that case, the Customer will move on to qualifying the next participant with the lowest price to determine the winner.
Another example could be that the Customer overlooked something, carried out the prequalification only partially, and did not thoroughly check participants' qualification at the Prequalification stage, and therefore re-runs the qualification of participants after the auction.
Or the Customer deliberately admitted the maximum possible number of participants to the Auction, in order to lower the value of its procurement as much as possible through strong competition.
In any case, the Customer always has the right to disqualify a participant after the auction. At the same time, participants have the right to appeal their qualification.
At this stage, participants can:
- submit claims to the Customer regarding their own disqualification
- submit complaints to the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine, which is only possible after the winner of the tender (lot) has been chosen
How to submit a complaint or claim?
Contract signing
This stage begins after the Customer has chosen a winner at the preceding Qualification stage.
The tender will only be considered completed once the Contract is signed with the winning participant.
The status of the contract with the participant is displayed in the Contract block on the tender page.
At this stage, participants can:
- submit claims to the Customer regarding their own disqualification, or regarding the determination of the winner
- submit complaints to the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine regarding their own disqualification, or regarding the determination of the winner
Separately, the winning participant can:
- upload additional documents (certificates) to their proposal, in accordance with Article 17 of the Law of Ukraine «On Public Procurement».