After the launch of the ProZorro e-government bidding system, those companies that previously did not want to do a deal with the state get the opportunity to participate in governmenr tenders. For beginners, at first sight this opportunity may seem like a challenge. But tender is the execution of procedures and accession to obligation, so let's look at the sequence of steps of the novice participant.

What is a tender: essence, classification, features of types of tenders

A tender is a procedure for placing a request for competitive purchase of goods, services or works in accordance with pre-determined conditions. Holding a tender is one of the components of the procurement process.
Tenders are divided into government and commercial ones.
Commercial tenders are announced by private companies to improve the quality of purchased goods, services or works. They are carried out in accordance with the company's internal regulations and within certain deadlines. Suppliers are other companies that compete through their offers for price/terms of delivery, payment/quality of goods, services, works/reputation.
Government tenders are tenders in which customers are state structures or budget institutions. The rules for holding such tenders are fixed at the legislative level and are regulated by legislative acts. Government tenders are held openly, unless otherwise stipulated by law. There is also a difference for suppliers and organizers: suppliers pay for participation in government tenders, and organizers pay for participation in commercial ones.
Government tenders are divided into sub-threshold (up to UAH 200,000 for goods and up to UAH 1.5 million for services and works) and above-threshold (all that exceeds the amounts indicated). Tenders can also be open or closed, they can be conducted in several stages in the form of an auction.

What is ProZorro?

ProZorro is a single state register, an electronic database of all government procurements. Such procurements pass through the electronic trading platforms accredited in the system. A state customer chooses a platform to announce a tender.
SmartTender is one of the founding platforms of the ProZorro system. August 1, 2016 is considered the date of a full-scale launch of the public procurement reform. It was on this day that all state customers of the country started to use ProZorro.

Requirements on tender participants and criteria for selecting winners

There are certain requirements on participants in government tenders. These rules are determined by the regulatory framework and they are mandatory for every company that wants to submit a tender proposal for participation in the procedure. Here is a list of requirements for a supplier:

you need to register a legal entity in the Unified State Register (USR);
unblemished tax reputation reputation and documents proving that the company is an honest taxpayer;
good reputation as a counterparty (your company must have the image of a reliable supplier that meets the conditions of the contract to the fullest extent);
the experience of implementing such projects and the availability of the necessary capacities for this;
the availability of skilled workers for the implementation of assigned tasks.

All of the above requirements must be documented. In the state auction, there are price and non-price criteria for selecting winners. In general, the purpose of holding a tender for the state structure is to save budget funds. Therefore, most often the winner is the company that offered the minimum price for its product, service or work.

Getting ready for participation: a list of necessary documents

Documents that need to be prepared for the participant of government tenders:

statutory documents of the enterprise (the statute, registration documents, etc.);
tender (bank) guarantee. This document is an important confirmation that the supplier can guarantee the absence of unprofitability of the tender for the customer;
a document confirming that the participant is not bankrupt;
a certificate stating that the company does not have a criminal record for failure to comply with financial arrangements and obligations;
a certificate of absence of tax debts;
a document confirming registration in the USR.

How to participate in a tender

All above-threshold tenders are mandatory to be held through the ProZorro system. Sub-threshold ones can be held offline.
Let's talk about how to participate in the online tender. Here is a simple instruction for beginners. To participate in the government electronic tender, you need:

choose a platform with the most convenient functional;
go through the registration procedure on this platform;
set up an electronic signature, choose the industry you are interested in and the subject of procurement;
apply for tenders (the list of the above-mentioned documents);
go through the online auction;
publicly announce your tender offer.

Tender offer: TOP-5 errors of the supplier

A lot of potential suppliers do not pass the selection procedure because of mistakes in the tender documentation. The most common shortcomings in the documents of the participants of government tenders:

the tender proposal does not correspond to the tender documentation. If the conditions and rules of the tender are not entirely clear to the participant, you should contact the organizer for clarification;
the proposed goods, services or works do not meet the customer's technical requirements. Communication will also help here. It is important to be aware of all the nuances of the tender conditions;
documents are not issued in accordance with the law "On public procurement";
minor technical errors due to inattention: lack of the seal, typos, grammatical errors;
the proposed budget of the participant does not comply with the terms of the organizer's technical documentation.

Contracting practice

After all tender procedures and stages and in case your company wins a tender, you need to sign a contract with the state customer — this is the last step in the procurement process. Each party needs to carefully study and verify the terms of the contract, because further work to implement it will depend on this. The Law "On Public Procurements" provides for the following terms for entering into an open tender agreement.
The contract is signed after the negotiation procedure:

not earlier than 10 calendar days after the date of publication of a message about the desire to sign a contract on the website of the Authorized body (according to the law, there are conditions when the contract is signed not earlier than in 5 days) (The Law of Ukraine "On Public Procurements");
not later than 35 calendar days after the publication of a message about the desire to sign a contract on the website of the Authorized body (according to the law, there are conditions when the contract is signed not later than in 20 days) (The Law of Ukraine "On Public Procurements").

Refusal to sign the contract

If the winner of the tender for any reason refuses to sign the contract with the customer, the latter rejects the tender offer of the winner and defines the new supplier among the participants, whose proposals are still valid. The bid security is not returned to the participant who refused to sign the contract (in case if it was provided by the supplier under the terms of the tender).