Compliance requirements
Grounds for exclusion may apply if the bidder, a member of its management, administrative or supervisory body, or a person authorised to represent it has been convicted within the relevant period of participation in a criminal organisation, corruption, fraud, terrorism or terrorist offences, money laundering or terrorist financing, unlawful use of child labour, or human trafficking. This generally covers the previous five years or any exclusion period still in force under a court judgment.
Other possible grounds include failure to pay taxes or social security contributions; breaches of environmental, social or labour obligations; bankruptcy, liquidation, insolvency, an arrangement with creditors, assets administered by a liquidator or court, or suspended business activities. For tax and social security arrears, the notice states a threshold of EUR 0; its clarification says that the Estonian tax authority does not issue an arrears certificate for debts below EUR 100 or where payment has been rescheduled.
Exclusion may also apply for serious professional misconduct, agreements distorting competition, an unresolved conflict of interest, involvement in preparing the procurement that creates an undue competitive advantage, material or repeated breach of a previous public contract, false statements, failure to provide required information or documents, obtaining confidential information to gain an undue advantage, enabling the employment of a foreign national without legal grounds, being subject to international sanctions, or conviction for tax offences. In certain circumstances, the bidder may provide evidence of measures taken to restore its reliability; whether this is available depends on the law and procurement documents.
The bidder must confirm that it will not engage subcontractors or suppliers for more than 10% of the contract value if they are Russian nationals, residents or entities established in Russia; are more than 50% directly or indirectly owned by such persons or entities; or act as their representatives or under their direction. The buyer will reject a bid if the resulting contract would be void under international sanctions.
Qualification criteria and exclusion grounds
The bidder must demonstrate the following selection requirements and compliance and submit the required documents.
- The bidder’s average annual net turnover in website development, software development or website maintenance must be at least EUR 330,000 over the last three completed financial years (2023–2025).
- During the 36 months before the procurement began, the bidder must have duly completed at least two Drupal website development or maintenance contracts and at least two WordPress website development or maintenance contracts. Each contract must have been worth at least EUR 50,000 excluding VAT. Submit a list of contracts showing their names, scope, value, performance period, and the client’s name and contact details.
- The team must include an analyst/business-client project manager, a designer, a UI/UX specialist, a senior Drupal developer, a Drupal developer, a senior WordPress developer and a tester. Each team member may fill only one role. Within the five years before the procurement began, the required experience is: at least 3 years managing IT software development projects for the project manager; at least 3 years creating web designs for the designer; at least 3 years as a user-experience specialist for web designs for the UI/UX specialist; at least 5 years developing with Drupal for the senior Drupal developer; at least 3 years developing with Drupal for the Drupal developer; at least 5 years developing with WordPress for the senior WordPress developer; and at least 1 year testing functional and non-functional requirements for the tester. Submit a CV for each specialist.
- The bidder must hold a valid ISO 27001 certificate or equivalent, or comply with and implement CIS controls at Implementation Group 1 level or higher. Submit the certificate or a completed CIS controls table describing or evidencing implementation.
- Include a completed team commitment letter digitally signed by every named team member. Also submit a sample assignment of no more than 10 pages: an analysis of the renewal of keskkonnaharidus.ee covering the website’s technical condition and proposed improvements to functionality, user experience, security and accessibility. It must include at least five priority development proposals, each with an effort estimate in hours and a brief technical solution description, as well as estimates in hours for fixing known defects and assessing requested functionality.
- Submit the pricing form stating a single hourly rate for development and maintenance work in euros excluding VAT, to the nearest cent. The price must include all costs associated with proper contract performance. The maximum orderable volume is 3,000 working hours, but the buyer is not required to order the entire volume. Conditional bids are not allowed, and the bid must comply with the procurement documents. Any proposed equivalent must be explained and supported with evidence.
- Evaluation will take account of the project manager’s public-sector web solution references from the last 36 months and the Drupal and WordPress developers’ development projects from the same period. Provide the details specified in the procurement documents; for the project manager’s references, also state whether the solution integrated with national services, and for Drupal projects, state the specialist’s role and hours worked. Missing references will not make a bid non-compliant but will affect its evaluation score. The extract provided does not state the exact award-criterion weights or scoring table; check the procurement documents.
- For a joint bid, include the joint bidders’ authorisation. Identify any trade secrets in the bid and explain why they qualify; the bid price and numerical figures used for evaluation cannot be designated as trade secrets.