Public Procurement can be defined as the acquisition, whether under formal contract or not, of works, supplies and services by public bodies. It ranges from the purchase of routine supplies or services to formal tendering and placing contracts for large infrastructural projects by a wide and diverse range of contracting authorities.
EU directives set out advertising requirements and tendering procedures for contracts above certain value thresholds that must be applied by all public bodies involved in procurement. For contracts or purchases below these threshold values national rules apply.
There is no requirement for a tenderer to be a registered company in order to be awarded a public contract. Any economic operator, defined as a person, or a group of persons, that carries out works, or supplies products or services, is entitled to tender for a public contract under EU Directive 2004/18/EC, transposed into Irish law by SI No 329 of 2006
Economic operators applying for above EU threshold contracts are typically assessed against pre-qualification criteria to establish their ability to do the job by reference to their financial and economic standing, their technical and professional capacity, and their insurance levels. Successful economic operators who progress to the award stage are assessed either in terms of the lowest price or the most economically advantageous tender (MEAT) to determine the best offer. Establishing the levels of qualification criteria and award criteria that are relevant and appropriate to a particular contract is a matter for the contracting authority concerned. This is because the contracting authority is in the best position to gauge what is appropriate relative to the needs of that specific contract.
It is a basic principle of public procurement that a competitive process should be used unless there are justifiably exceptional circumstances and that winning government business is done in a fair, transparent and accessible way.
