What is it qualification

Qualification is the stage at which the customer verifies the participant's proposal for compliance with the tender requirements. It comes after the auction stage, at which the potential winner of the purchase is determined. The result of this stage may be the rejection (disqualification) of the supplier or the customer's decision to sign the purchase agreement.

Who Qualifies for Public Procurement?

The participant who offered the most favorable price offer at the time of the end of the auction gets to the qualification stage first. If they are rejected, then the second most advantageous offer will be qualified in the next one, and so on. If all suppliers are disqualified, the tender is considered unsuccessful.

Who Qualifies for Commercial Bidding?

Since the conduct of a commercial tender is not regulated by law, its organizer – a private company – determines at its discretion how the winner will be selected. The customer's representative can conduct a qualification for all tender offers and choose the best one based on the necessary parameters, or check only the offer with the most favorable price – in this case, the qualification process will be similar to how it happens in public electronic tenders.

Qualification on Prozorro Market

The state marketplace also assumes a qualification stage, but here it takes place differently:

1. 1. A supplier who wants to start selling goods or services in the e-catalog registers on the electronic trading platform.
   2. Finds a category suitable for work, in which they plan to become a seller.
   3. Submits an application for qualification – confirmation of delivery experience within the last year.
   4. Within 10 days, the administrator of Prozorro Market decides on the distributor's admission to work on the marketplace.

We tell you more about this procedure in the SmartTender Academy qualification instructions.

After passing the qualification, the Prozorro Market supplier does not need to provide any supporting documents to sell goods or services in the selected category.

What Is the Difference Between Prequalification and Qualification?

The stage of prequalification in online auctions provides that the customer will check the tender offer of the participant before the start of the auction, thus deciding whether to admit this supplier to the next stage or not. Such a procedure is used, for example, in open tenders with publications in English, which usually have large budgets, to avoid unwanted price dumping and work only with verified companies.