Public procurement
The Swedish Competition Authority is responsible for information on and supervision of Public Procurement from the 1 September 2007.
What is public procurement?
The new Public Procurement Acts came into force on 1 January 2008. The Acts regulates almost all public procurement which means that contracting entities, such as local government agencies, county councils, government agencies as well as certain publicly owned companies etc, must comply with the act when they purchase, lease, rent or hire-purchase supplies, services and public works. The rules are different for public procurement above and below a number of so-called threshold values.
The fundamental principles of European Community law with regard to public procurement are the principles of non-discrimination, equal treatment, transparency (openness and predictability), proportionality and mutual recognition.
The principle of non-discrimination prohibits all discrimination based on nationality. No contracting entity may, for example, give preference to a local company simply because it is located in the municipality.
According to the principle of equal treatment all suppliers must be treated equally. All suppliers involved in a procurement procedure must, for example, be given the same information at the same time.
According to the principle of transparency the procurement process must be characterised by predictability and openness. In order to ensure equal conditions for tenderers the contract document has to be clear and unambiguous and contain all the requirements made of the items to be procured.
The principle of proportionality states that qualification requirements and requirements regarding the subject matter of the contract must have a natural relation to the supplies, services or works which are being procured and not be disproportionate.
The principle of mutual recognition means among other things that documents and certificates issued by the appropriate authorities in a Member State must be accepted in the other Member States.