The rules and laws governing Austria tenders

To understand the ways to successfully navigate through the rules and governing laws of the country’s public tender application, it is imperative to understand the local customs. Acceptance of the governing laws is crucial before applying, as there are very little chances where changes to contracts are allowed post-tender.

EU Directives, or the EU Commission, govern a majority of the infrastructure projects procured by federal agencies or utilities in the European Union (EU). These directives are now implemented under the national legislation, as they govern public procurement in each EU member state that stems from the same directives. Tender applicators that are not aware of the norms may get surprised by the subtle differences and sometimes similarities that may look familiar but are not. Forany country that is a part of the EU, these directives will also govern tenders from those countries, for example, Austria tenders, or even tenders for other countries within the Galicia region, say Ukraine or Poland tenders.

Tenders in Austria – rules and governing laws

Many infrastructure and utility project opportunities have emerged in Austria in recent years, making it one of the largest markets for such tenders. The Austrian Procurement Act defines the rules and the processes for public procurement of public authorities, public entities, and utility services.

The country offers a mature construction and infrastructure market for both conventional and contemporary established procured projects and contracting principles.

1. To be eligible to bid on a tender in Austria, many companies should either have a local footprint or a trusted domestic partner, much before the tender is made public. For government tenders, bidders must meet reliability and availability prerequisites.
2. The Austrian regulations regulate public procurement and the formal procedures which should be followed by public authorities during the procurement of goods and services.
3. The basic principles for public procurement procedures in Austria are - free and fair competition and equal treatment of all candidates and tenders with context to community rules on fundamental freedoms and the principle of non-discrimination.
4. The primary source of law for public tenders in Austria is the Public Procurement Act (Bundesvergabegesetz, BVergG) for both domestic and international agreements. Apart from this primary act, every region has its own laws.
5. The Austrian Procurement Act distinguishes between open procedure (offense Verfahren), restricted procedure (nichtoffenesVerfahren), negotiated procedure (Verhandlungsverfahren), dynamic purchasing system (dynamischesBeschaffungssystem), competitive dialogue procedure (wettbewerblicher Dialog), direct award (Direktvergabe), and direct award with prior notification (DirektvergabemitvorherigerBekanntmachung). The bidding authorities are free to choose which procedure to apply for, with prior notification. Additional possibilities (e.g., limitation on procedures without prior notification, contracts were given through a framework agreement, directly offered to the bidder with/without prior notification) exist for under-limit public procurements (VergabenimUnterschwellenbereich). 
6. There are no requisites for execution of contracts post-tender. The bidding authority is obliged to exclude bidders on the basis of lacking powers, financial, economic or technical capacity, or reliability.

The lesson for tenderers is, of course, to comply with the formalities as any failure to do so, no matter how small, is likely to result in exclusion from the tender.