Compliance requirements
The bidder must confirm that neither it nor any member of its representative, management or supervisory bodies is subject to grounds for exclusion. Exclusion applies to convictions for participation in a criminal organisation, breach of integrity obligations, corruption, fraud, terrorism or its financing, money laundering, enabling unlawful employment or breaches of conditions for employing foreign nationals, unlawful use of child labour, or human trafficking offences. A bidder may also be excluded for tax arrears or where awarding the contract would breach an international or Estonian sanction.
A foreign bidder must provide a criminal-record extract or equivalent document showing the absence of the first three groups of circumstances, and a certificate from the competent authority confirming the absence of tax arrears. An Estonian bidder must provide the confirmation; Estonian bidders are not required to submit documentary evidence of the absence of exclusion grounds.
Qualification criteria and exclusion grounds
The bidder must be registered in the commercial register or a similar register in its country of establishment, where required by that country’s law. The contracting authority will check the details of bidders registered in Estonia; a foreign bidder must provide a copy of a valid registration certificate.
During the three years preceding publication of the contract notice, the bidder must have properly completed at least one similar assignment with a total value of at least EUR 20,000. A similar assignment is a technical study, feasibility analysis or design project for a power plant, combined heat and power plant, or other industrial steam and condensate system, involving analysis of technical solutions for dissolved-gas removal, deaeration, boiler feedwater or condensate, and the preparation of technical proposals or design solutions. The reference must show the bidder’s role, area of responsibility and participation. Only the part and value of work completed during the reference period and handed over to and accepted by the client will count. The bidder must provide a list of contracts showing their value, dates and the other contracting parties, using the contracting authority’s Form 1 or its own form containing the same information.
The tender must comply with the procurement documents; conditional tenders are not permitted. The tender price must follow the structure set out in the award criteria and prices sheet. Joint bidders must appoint an authorised representative from among themselves and include a power of attorney. The bidder must identify and justify any information designated as a trade secret; the tender price and figures relating to the award criteria may not be designated as trade secrets. Where relevant, equivalence must be explained and supporting evidence provided. The contracting authority must be informed of any potential conflict of interest or competitive advantage, including any connection with the authority or the preparation of the procurement; where such circumstances exist, the bidder must provide a description with its tender. The documents provided do not specify the weighting or scoring of the award criteria.