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The team of our site receives a lot of questions from customers of eurotrading about how to answer the participant's requirements after the completion of the prequalification stage when there is no longer a technical opportunity to provide an answer in the system. In this article, Anastasiia Boiko, project manager of the SmartTender, will offer two solutions on how to act in this case.

What Stages Does This Type of Tender Include?

Open bidding with publication in English contains two such stages:

1. "1.1. Prequalification", where customers get acquainted with the proposals of the participants to admit to the auction only those who meet the conditions of the tender documents.
2. "1.2. Prequalification (appeal period)", where disqualified participants have the right to file a complaint and/or request the customer to provide more complete reasoning for the decision to reject. The customer is obliged to respond within five days from the receipt of the request in the electronic system (part 3 of article 31 of the Law "On public procurement").

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What Is the Main Difficulty?

The Law on Public Procurement does not stipulate that the requirement shall suspend the course of the public procurement procedure. This is its main difference from the complaint, which “freezes” the tender. The system works in such a way that procurement can move from one stage to another, regardless of whether there is an answer to the requirement in the system or not.

The customer has the opportunity to publish the answers to the requirements only at the stage “1.2. Prequalification (appeal period)” in the field regarding the claim. After the end of the stage “1.2. Prequalification (appeal period)", the procedure automatically goes to step "2. Auction”, where the opportunity to publish the answer disappears.

How to Answer a Request After the End of Prequalification?

To solve this problem, I propose the following options for action:

1. Since the information about the participant who submitted the request is already open, you can write to their email address within five days from the date of receipt of the application through the electronic procurement system. All decisions should be drawn up in a protocol. You can also download a letter of clarification when making a qualification decision.
2. You can simply make the post-auction qualification response public by uploading a separate document when deciding on the first tenderer. But be sure to pay attention to the deadline to meet the five days allotted by law to respond to the request.

In both cases, there will be no response in the purchase, but an attempt will be recorded on your part to answer within the timeframe established by the Law.

What Do I Advise You to Do Additionally?

Be sure to pay attention to the time allotted for appeals, follow your e-mail and messages in your account. This will help you to quickly respond to the received request and timely fulfill your obligations by the Law.

I also remind you that failure to provide information and documents in cases stipulated by law entails administrative liability under Part 1 of Art. 164-14 of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses, in the amount of UAH 1,700, to which authorized persons of customers are involved. Therefore, I advise you to comply with the requirements of the Law and act responsibly to avoid monitoring auditors and fines in the future.

I hope this information will help you in the future. Have a successful procurement!