WRITTEN QUESTION E-1785/99 by Ingo Friedrich (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Award of PHARE projects.
C 203 E/46 Official Journal of the European Communities EN 18. 7. 2000 (2000/C 203 E/055) WRITTEN QUESTION E-1785/99 by Ingo Friedrich (PPE-DE) to the Commission (11 October 1999) Subject: Award of PHARE projects Under the guidelines for PHARE projects, must institutions from EU Member States be taken into 1. consideration when project contracts are awarded? 2. What is done to ensure that tenderers from the CEECs do not quote ádumping pricesí so that tenderers from EU Member States are excluded? 3. What is done to check whether, when tenders are invited for PHARE projects, the anticipated project value is calculated so that tenderers from EU Member States also have a chance to participate and submit an appropriately costed bid? Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission (22 November 1999) 1. It is laid down in Article 7 of Council Regulation (EEC) No 3906/89 of 18 December 1989 on economic aid to certain countries of Central and Eastern Europe that participation in invitations to tender and contracts is open on equal terms to all natural and legal persons of the Member States and of the countries covered by the PHARE programme (1). The Member Statesí institutions may present a tender, which will be taken into consideration under the same conditions as all the others and must therefore have a commercial basis. 2. When tenders are scrutinised the quality/price ratio is taken into account as follows: for service contracts, a 70/30 ratio is applied to technical and financial tenders respectively; for works contracts, only tenders which score more than 65 % at the technical evaluation stage undergo a financial evaluation and the contract is awarded to the lowest bidder; for supply contracts, only tenders which the evaluation committee has found technically acceptable undergo financial evaluation, and the award is systematically made to the lowest bid among the tenders which are technically in accordance with the specifications. Under this system of evaluation, only technically valid tenders are taken into consideration, irrespective of whether they are for services, works or supplies. The budget for each project is calculated on the basis of the resources considered necessary to attain 3. the objective set. To that end, project managers use estimates based on European market prices. (1) OJ L 375, 23. 12. 1989. (2000/C 203 E/056) WRITTEN QUESTION E-1786/99 by Ingo Friedrich (PPE-DE) to the Commission (11 October 1999) Subject: Procedure for reaching decisions on the award of TACIS-funded projects Are current TACIS formalities (written tender, interview, financial offer) adequate for deciding which 1. tenderer should be awarded a contract, e. g. for a project valued at € 12,8 million? 2. What is done to ensure that the information supplied to the evaluation panel in the written tender and at the interview is accurate and also that obligations are fulfilled once a contract has been signed?