When transposing the EU-Directives, Austrian public procurement law offers several different ways to award a contract. Contracting authorities may employ the following procedures:

• open procedure, in which all interested contractors may submit a bid;
• restricted procedure (two-step-procedure), in which, first, a call for competition is published and the contracting authority selects a limited number of the interested economic operators to submit a bid subsequently;
• restricted procedure without a prior call for competition in which the contracting authority selects directly a limited number of appropriate economic operators to submit a bid; because of its lowered transparency this procedure is only applicable under certain circumstances within the sub-threshold area;
• negotiated procedure (two-step-procedure) with call for competition, in which, first, a call for competition is published and the contracting authority selects a limited number of the interested economic operators to submit a first bid and subsequently negotiates the terms of the contract based on the first bids with a call for final bids when negotiations have been concluded;
• negotiated procedure without prior call for competition in which the contracting authority selects directly a limited number of appropriate economic operators to submit a first bid and subsequently negotiates the terms of the contract based on the first bids with a call for final bids when negotiations have been concluded
• award of a framework agreement (see above under 2. f.)
• dynamic procurement system which is structurally comparable to the framework agreement; in contrast, however, this is a fully electronic procurement system exclusively for commercial services;
• competitive dialogue, in which a contract notice is published and the contracting authority conducts a dialogue with the candidates admitted to that procedure with the aim of developing one or more suitable alternatives capable of meeting its requirements and on the basis of which the chosen candidates are invited to bid;
• innovation partnership, in which the procedure is structured in successive phases following the sequence of steps in the research and innovation process, which may include the manufacturing of the products and in a second phase the provision of the services or the completion of the works; and
• in exceptional cases: direct awards, i.e. award of a contract with or without publishing a contract notice and without conducting a formal competitive procedure; direct awards are only applicable under certain circumstances within the sub-threshold area because of its freedom of form and its vulnerability to adverse influences (see below under point 7.a.);
• furthermore, there is the possibility to carry out an electronic auction for standardized services; in combination with another procurement procedure, the electronic auction can be used to determine the offer which is to be awarded.

As a general rule, the open procedure as well as the restricted procedure are always permissible. In the Utilities sector, contracting authorities can also always choose a negotiated procedure (two-step-procedure) with call for competition. Circumstances which exceptionally permit the negotiated procedure, the competitive dialogue or the innovation partnership are determined in the procurement provisions. Direct awards, as the only non-competitive option, are only admissible in very exceptional cases and if an estimated contract value of (currently) 100.000 euros is not reached (please refer to 7. below).

In implementation of Art. 22 of the Directive 2014/24/EU, Austrian procurement law obliges contracting authorities to use electronic means for the entire procurement procedure by 18 October 2018 if the threshold values contained in the European Directives are equalled or exceeded.

Additionally, Austrian procurement law list electronic methods and tools for procurement procedures which are at present already available (see above point 3. a. "dynamic procurement system" and "electronic auction").

Meanwhile, central purchasing bodies (e.g. Austrian Ministries) already have to use electronic means for the entire procurement procedure by 2017.
For public procurement procedures below the threshold values, the use of electronic means is not mandatory by 18 October 2018.

EU-wide calls for bids are published on the website Bids Electronic Daily (TED):

http://ted.europa.eu/

TED is the online version of the Supplement to the Official Journal of the EU, dedicated to European public procurement.

In Austria, procurement procedures can be viewed on the websites:

• www.auftrag.at (for bidders), or
• www.lieferanzeiger.at (for contracting authorities).

Yes, certain prospective bidders can be excluded from the competition in case they are lacking sufficient reliability. According to provisions in the BVergG, bidders who have been convicted of any of the offences listed therein have to be excluded from the competition. The relevant offences include, in particular, forming criminal organizations, money laundering, fraud and giving bribes as an incentive to the recipient’s violating his official duties.

The contracting authority may furthermore exclude a bidder in cases of anticompetitive behaviour (e.g. if the respective bidder has entered into an agreement with other bidders aimed at distorting competition or if the respective bidder has made attempts to unduly influence the contracting authority), bankruptcy or upcoming insolvency, a grave professional misconduct, a conflict of interest, a prior involvement in the preparation of the tender procedure which grants the respective bidder an competitive advantage which cannot be balanced otherwise (see also below under e.), or supplying misleading information during the procurement procedure. In any case the exclusion has to be proportionate, the respective bidder always has to be given the right to be heard upfront.