Under the Model Law, contracts are awarded to economic operators that are suitable with regard to the subject matter of the procurement. Paragraph 2 of Article 11 specifies general evaluation criteria, which includes price, cost of operating, maintaining and repairing goods or of construction, time for delivery of goods, completion of construction or provision of services, functional characteristics of goods or construction, environmental characteristics of the subject matter, and terms of payment. A bidder or an applicant respectively is suitable if he possesses experience, reliability, and professional and managerial competence. Additionally, the procuring entity may consider any other criteria that the procurement regulations or other provisions in the enacting state and evaluate the margin of preference, as specified in Paragraph 3(b).

Prequalification is an option according to Article 18. Prequalification proceedings allow procuring entities to identify suppliers and contractors at an early stage and are particularly useful for the purchase of complex or high-valued goods. In a prequalification proceeding, the procuring entity is required to provide an open solicitation, such as a publication of the invitation to pre-qualify. The Model Law also requires that the invitation to prequalify should be published internationally. Paragraph 3 of Article 18 specifies the information that must be included in the invitation.

In a prequalification proceeding, the procuring entity provides a set of prequalification documents to each supplier or contractor that requests them and that pays the price charged for the documents. The prequalification documents must include:

• Instructions for preparing and presenting prequalification application;
• Any documentary evidence or other information that must be presented by suppliers or contractors to demonstrate their qualifications;
• The name, functional title, and address of one or more officers or employees of the procuring entity who are authorized to communicate directly with and to receive communications directly from suppliers or contractors in connection with the prequalification proceedings without the intervention of an intermediary;
• References to this law, the procurement regulations, and other laws and regulations directly pertinent to the prequalification proceedings, and the place where those laws and regulations may be found;
• Any other requirements that may be established by the procuring entity in conformity with this law and the procurement regulations relating to the preparation and presentation of applications to prequalify and to the prequalification proceedings.

The procuring entity must apply only the criteria and procedures noted in the invitation to prequalify and in the prequalification documents in deciding the prequalified suppliers or contractors. Additionally, the Model Law requires that the procuring entities must respond to any requests by a supplier or contractor for clarification. Article 18 further requires the procuring entity to promptly notify each supplier and contractor whether or not they have been prequalified, and upon request, make available to any person the names of all suppliers or contractors that have been prequalified.

While no "blacklist" formally exists, Paragraph (2)(f) of Article 9 establishes that suppliers and contractors that are debarred or suspended as a result of a past criminal offense are disqualified from participating in the procurement proceeding. The Model Law leaves it up to the enacting State to determine the period of time preceding the commencement of the procurement proceedings for which a criminal offense would disqualify the bidder from taking part in the procurement process.

Yes. In order to prevent conflicts of interest, the party that participated in the set-up of a procurement procedure can be excluded from the same procedure pursuant to Article 26, if the party gained a competitive advantage from the involvement. The Article requires the procuring entities to enact a code of conduct and regulate matters to prevent conflicts of interest in procurement.

The Model Law permits bidders to combine to submit a bid and form a bidder consortium. The combined entities will collectively be considered as a single "procuring entity." The Model Law, however, does not regulate bidder consortia in detail, and instead, leaves it to the enacting State to regulate and monitor the purchasing arrangement. Moreover, the formation of consortia is not simply limited to entities within the enacting state. The Model Law permits cross-border bidder consortia comprised of entities from different states, and in such instances, international agreements would have primacy in facilitating and regulating the purchasing arrangement.

The Model Law does not address this.

Please see Section 4(c).

There are no special statutory regulations for foreign entities to participate in a procurement proceeding. There are also no special requirements under the Model Law for the legal representative of a foreign company as this would lead to a restriction of competition.