About the Documents for Participation in the Food Products Procurement – the SmartTender.biz Lawyer Olena Isachenko

If you are involved in the public procurement of food products, first of all, you need to have a universal package of documents that are required from participants in any Prozorro tenders. In addition to them, you will need special documents confirming your company’s qualifications:

     1. Confirmation that your employees have appropriate qualifications, the necessary knowledge, and experience

Usually, the customer requires the provision of valid personal medical records of employees who will be involved in the delivery of goods, with a mark on the passage of a medical examination, as well as a driver's license.

If you use a carriage service for the supply of goods, you must ensure that the loading of the contract for the provision of carriage services will meet the conditions of the bidding documents. To do this, you can post a question to the customer in the system or write a request (or complaint) to amend the tender documentation – expanding the range of documents to confirm compliance with the qualification criterion.

     2. Confirmation that you have equipment, material, and technical base and technologies

Most often, customers require the provision of the following documents:

• • vehicle registration certificate (technical passport);
  • certificate of capacities ownership (composition, production and administrative building, etc.);
  • an extract from the state register of material rights.

Among the specific documents, the following are also found:

1. 1. Operational permit for facilities for the production, processing, or sale of food products, indicating the type of economic activity and the range of products.
   2. Permit to start operation of high-risk equipment.
   3. Decision on state registration of the market operator's capacity with an indication of the type of activity that is planned to be carried out using the capacity.
   4. The act of the territorial administration of the State Service of Ukraine for food safety and consumer protection, drawn up based on the results of a planned (unscheduled) state control (inspection) event regarding compliance by market operators with the requirements of legislation on food and feed, animal health and welfare.
   5. Certificate of conformity of the measurement management system from the body authorized to carry out metrological actions (if the participant is a manufacturer and carries out research and testing of products in his laboratory).

     3. Confirmation of the conformity of the vehicle for the goods delivery

The customer may require the provision of the following documents:

1. 1. A document confirming the sanitization (disinfection) of vehicles, which will be used to supply goods, by the current legislation of Ukraine. Together with it, the results of the study of washes for pathogenic and conditionally pathogenic microflora of vehicles are provided (this can be the Protocol of laboratory research of the bacteriological laboratory of cars for hygiene indicators and the Protocol for testing washes from cars for the presence of microbiological indicators of salmonella, etc.).
   2. A separate requirement is the provision of an Agreement on disinfection, deratization, and disinfestation of premises and vehicles with confirmation in the form of Acts of Completed Work.

     4. Confirmation of the documented experience in the implementation of a similar contract (contracts) on the procurement subject

As a rule, similarity is determined by the ДК code in the system or directly by the subject of purchase. It is worth paying attention to the volumes, since the customer may require confirmation of the experience in the implementation of similar contracts in the amount of at least defined by the terms of reference for the subject of procurement for a specific tender. The volume is the volume of delivery of products or price indicators.

Determination of a counterparty under a similar agreement is discrimination, and therefore, experience can be confirmed by an agreement with both a state organization and a corporate and private enterprise or an individual entrepreneur, self-employed/individual.

I emphasize that the variability of the counterparty under a similar agreement should be fixed in the tender documents.

     5. Availability of financial capability, which is confirmed by financial statements

According to Part 1 of Article 13 of the Law of Ukraine "On Accounting and Financial Reporting in Ukraine", the reporting period for drawing up financial statements is a calendar year.

If the customer, having chosen this qualification criterion, did not detail for what period the financial statements must be submitted, I recommend providing the current summer and interim (based on the results of the first quarter, first half of the year, nine months).

Please note! If you are a small business entity, then according to the law you are not required to draw up a report in full form, but you must notify the customer about this by a letter in any form concerning legislative acts confirming the grounds for not submitting the relevant components of the financial statements.

     6. Availability of documents confirming compliance with the necessary technical, qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the procurement subject

In the conditions of tender documents, there are requirements to provide the following documents:

1. 1. Certificate for Food Safety Management System (HACCP, ISO 22000:2015 (ISO 22000:2018), etc.).
   2. Certificate for food safety management system of food chain category – F, subcategory – FII and food chain category – G, subcategory – GI and GII or their analogs.

Despite the voluntary certification, if the customer prescribed this requirement in the tender documents, and the participant did not appeal against it, then failure to provide such a document will result in disqualification.

Specific technical documents include the following:

1. 1. Protocol of laboratory research on microbiological indicators MAFAM, CFU in products.
   2. Quality certification, quality (conformity) certificate, manufacturer's declaration.
   3. Test (research) protocol for physical and chemical parameters.
   4. Expert opinion on the determination of organoleptic and microbiological indicators.
   5. Research (test) protocol for the content of toxic elements, mycotoxins, pesticides, radionuclides.
   6. Molecular biological studies for the presence of GMOs in products.
   7. Certificate from the laboratory about the passage of the veterinary and sanitary examination.

Please note! If in the document (in technical certificate, protocol, etc. or the provided contracts) there is a link to the pages or the attachments are indicated, then they are an INTEGRAL part, and they must be submitted together with the main document.

I would also like to say about a point that suppliers do not always pay attention to – dating. I recommend checking the validity of the documents before submitting a tender proposal. Since the expiration of the document is a reason to believe that it is not included in the tender offer, this threatens you with disqualification.

When preparing your tender offer, always follow the rule: it is better to prevent disqualification than to hope for a positive appeal. If you need advice or legal assistance with any question regarding participation in the tender, leave a request on this page.

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