Written answer
Public Procurement Contracts
No automatic review is required when a procurement competition receives one compliant tender, though contracting authorities must ensure proper process and value for money.
225. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation whether a review process is automatically triggered where only one compliant tender is received in a procurement competition above a specified value. [75165/26]
Comment on this
There is no general requirement under public procurement law or national procurement policy that an automatic review process would be triggered where only one compliant tender is received in a procurement competition above a specified value.
The eTenders system does not display the number of tenders received until the Tender Box has been opened by the contracting authority. Once the Tender Box is opened, the contracting authority gains access to the submitted tenders and can see the number of responses received. The contracting authority then assesses the submissions against the selection and exclusion criteria to determine whether tenderers qualify to proceed to the evaluation stage. Following this validation process, compliant tenders are evaluated in accordance with the award criteria set out in the competition documentation.
Where only one compliant tender is received, the contracting authority must satisfy itself that the competition was conducted appropriately, that the tender meets the requirements of the competition, and that the proposed award represents value for money.
Responsibility for conducting procurement procedures rests with the individual contracting authority, which must ensure that all procurement processes are carried out in accordance with the principles of transparency, equal treatment, non-discrimination and proportionality.
Contracting authorities are expected to exercise appropriate governance and oversight in such circumstances and may, where considered necessary, undertake additional review or assurance measures in accordance with their internal procedures and delegated authorities. The specific arrangements that apply may vary between contracting authorities.
Accordingly, while individual organisations may have internal review requirements for competitions that attract only one compliant tender, there is no centrally mandated threshold or automatic review mechanism applicable across all contracting authorities solely on that basis.