Compliance requirements
The bidder may be excluded for relevant final convictions within the past five years, or while an exclusion period remains in force, involving participation in a criminal organisation, corruption, fraud, terrorist offences, money laundering or terrorist financing, child labour or human trafficking. Grounds also include failure to pay taxes or social security contributions; breaches of environmental, social or labour obligations; bankruptcy, insolvency, liquidation, an arrangement with creditors, assets managed by a liquidator or court, suspended business activity, or an equivalent situation; serious professional misconduct; agreements intended to distort competition; an unresolvable conflict of interest; involvement in preparing the procurement where the resulting competitive advantage cannot otherwise be eliminated; and significant or persistent failure to perform a previous public contract resulting in early termination, damages, a price reduction or a penalty. Exclusion may also apply for false or misleading information, withholding information, failure to submit requested documents, improper attempts to influence the procurement or obtain confidential information, enabling unlawful employment of a foreign national, international sanctions, or conviction for tax offences. Where legally available, the bidder may provide evidence of measures taken to restore its reliability. The notice specifies a zero-euro threshold for tax and social-security debts; under the stated national tax rules, a tax-debt certificate is not issued where the relevant debt is below EUR 100 or its payment has been deferred.
Qualification criteria and exclusion grounds
The bidder must have properly completed, under a contract during the 36 months preceding the start of the procurement, at least one of the following: a company’s financial or legal due diligence audit; a financial or legal analysis relating to the preparation, feasibility or alternatives for a merger, division or acquisition of companies, or transfer of a company or part of one; an analysis or assessment of the condition, performance, development potential or investment needs of technical infrastructure; or a company valuation involving analysis of its financial position, assets and liabilities. The work may have started earlier, and completed work under a contract that is otherwise still ongoing may also count. For at least one qualifying assignment, the bidder must provide its scope, content and outcome, its own role, dates, value excluding VAT, and the client’s name and contact details. If relying on another entity’s experience, the bidder must provide that entity’s European Single Procurement Document and consent to the reliance, identifying the experience and confirming that entity will personally perform the contract part for which the experience is required.
The contract team must include three key experts, each personally involved in performance: a financial expert, a legal expert and a technical expert. One of them must be named as team leader and must meet the requirements for their expert role; no additional education or experience is required for the team-leader role.
• Financial expert: at least a master’s degree or equivalent qualification and at least 36 months’ work experience in auditing or financial analysis during the 60 months preceding the start of the procurement.
• Legal expert: a master’s degree in law or equivalent qualification and at least 36 months’ experience providing legal services during the preceding 60 months. During that same period, the expert must have participated in at least one assignment involving legal advice on a company merger, division or acquisition, transfer of a company or part of one, a company’s legal due diligence audit, or the legal preparation, feasibility or alternatives analysis of such a transaction.
• Technical expert: a valid professional qualification as a Certified Water Supply and Sewerage Engineer, level 7 (excluding the initial qualification), or Authorised Water Supply and Sewerage Engineer, level 8, or an equivalent qualification. During the preceding 60 months, the expert must have work experience in the design, construction or auditing of public water supply or sewerage systems, or in assessing the technical condition of wastewater treatment plants or water treatment facilities.
The bidder must submit a CV for each key expert using the specified form. For the financial and legal experts, education must be evidenced by a diploma copy or a web reference sufficient to verify it; a diploma copy is required among the additional documents if the CV does not contain an adequate verification link. For the technical expert, provide the professional certificate number or a verification link. The information must be sufficiently detailed to assess compliance. The contracting authority may verify it with third parties and request further explanations or documents where relevant information is not readily available in public registers. For foreign-issued technical qualifications, the bidder must be prepared to provide supporting documents on request.
The offer must comply with the procurement documents; conditional offers are not permitted. The price must follow the prescribed pricing structure. Any claimed trade secret must be identified and justified; the price and price components, and other numerical indicators used to evaluate service offers, cannot be classified as trade secrets. Where equivalence is relevant, the bidder must explain it and provide supporting evidence. In a joint bid, the participants must appoint an authorised representative and provide the authorisation. The bidder must also make the required declarations concerning sanctioned goods and restricted subcontractors or suppliers: such parties must not account for more than 10% of the contract value where they are Russian nationals, residents or entities established in Russia, entities more than 50% owned by such persons or entities, or persons or entities acting on their behalf or instructions.