2.The requirements for registration on the official lists of approved suppliers shall be set in compliance with the provisions contained in paragraph 1 of Article 33, subparagraphs 1 to 4 and 7 of paragraph 2 of Article 33, a 33, Articles 34, 35, 36 paragraph 1 and, where appropriate, paragraph 2 of Article 37 of this Law. As regards applications for registration submitted by economic entities belonging to a group and claiming resources made available to them by the other companies in the group. In such case, these entities must prove to the authority establishing the official list that they will have these resources at their disposal throughout the period of validity of the certificate attesting to their being registered in the official list and that throughout the same period these economic entities continue to fulfil the qualitative selection requirements on which economic entities rely for their registration in the list.
\n
3.The competent bodies shall register suppliers on official lists on their request provided that they meet the requirements set for them in paragraph 2 of this Article. Lithuanian suppliers and suppliers from other Member States shall be registered on equal conditions. The institution shall forthwith notify suppliers of the taken decision.
\n
4.The supplier registered on the official lists of approved suppliers may, for each contract, submit to the contracting authority a certificate of registration on the official lists of approved suppliers issued by the competent authority. The certificates shall state the references, which enabled the supplier to be registered in the list and the classification given in that list.
\n
5.With regard to the payment of social security contributions and taxes, an additional certificate may be required by the contracting authority of any supplier registered on the official list.
\n
6.The contracting authority may not be obliged require that the suppliers undergo such registration in order to participate in a public contract. The contracting authorities shall recognise equivalent certificates from competent authorities of other Member States and may not question them without justification. The supplier may also present documents as proof that his qualification is in compliance with the requirements set by the contracting authority.
\n
7.The authorities referred to in paragraph 1 of this Law shall be obliged to inform the Commission of the European Communities and the other Member States of their address.
\n
Article 39Evaluation and Comparison of Tenders
\n
1.The contracting authority may request the tenderers to explain their tenders. However, the contracting authority may not request, suggest or allow changing the subject matter of the tender submitted by open or restricted procedure, including the price or any other material changes, due to which an irregular tender would become acceptable. This provision is not applicable in the process of verifying the qualification of the candidates or tenderers. When awarding contracts by way of negotiations with or without publication of a contract notice, the price and other contract conditions may be negotiated, but the result of negotiations documented in the record of negotiations may not be changed 2. The contracting authority shall reject the tender, if:
\n
1)the tenderer who submitted it fails to meet the minimum qualification requirements set out in the contract documents;
\n
2)the tender fails to meet the requirements set forth in the contract documents;
\n
3)all tenderers offered too high prices, which are unacceptable for the contracting authority;
\n
3.Where the contracting authority has to reject all tenders it must obtain the consent of the Public Procurement Office to do so.
\n
4.The criteria on which the contracting authority shall base the award of contracts shall be:
\n
1)when award is made to the most economically advantageous tender for the contracting authority, various criteria directly linked to the subject of the public contract in question: for example, quality, price, technical merit, aesthetic and functional characteristics, environmental characteristics, running costs, cost-effectiveness, after-sales service and technical assistance, delivery date, delivery period or period of completion;
\n
2)the lowest price only.
\n
5.In the case referred to in, subparagraph 1 of paragraph 4 of this Article the contracting authority shall specify, in the contract documents, the relative weighting which it gives to each of the criteria chosen to determine the most economically advantageous tender. This weighting can be expressed by providing for a range within which the value attributed to each criterion shall be stated. In exceptional cases, where the purpose of procurement does not allow technically establishing the relative weight of the criteria, the contracting authority shall specify the priority order (order of importance) of the evaluation criteria in the tender documents.
\n
6.Where the contracting authority evaluates tenders by their economic advantage, it shall first verify and asses the technical data of the tender, and, after communicating the results of such verification and assessment to the suppliers, proceed with the overall evaluation of the tenders by taking into account the price.
\n
7.The contracting authority shall select the successful tenderer in the following sequence:
\n
1)applying the tender evaluation criteria and procedure set forth in the contract documents, the contracting authority shall evaluate the tenders submitted by the tenderers and produce a preliminary ranking of tenders (this does not apply in cases where only one supplier is invited to tender or the tender is submitted by only one supplier). The preliminary ranking shall be done in the decreasingthe tenderer proves to the satisfaction of the contracting authority and by any appropriate means that the work, product or service in compliance with the standard meets the performance or functional requirements of the contracting authorityg order of economic advantage or increasing order of prices. When the tender evaluation criteria is the lowest price offered and several tenders offering the same price are submitted, the preliminary ranking of tenders shall be produced putting the tenderer who was the first to register the envelope containing his tender first in the ranking order;
\n
2)the contracting authority shall immediately inform the tenderers about the preliminary ranking of tenders and the tenderers whose tenders have not been ranked shall be notified of the reasons of rejecting their tenders, including rejection of the tender due to their inequality and failure to meet the performance and functional requirements specified by the contracting authority as indicated in a 25 of this Law;
\n
3)the contracting authority may approve the preliminary ranking and make a decision regarding the successful tenderer only after all claims and complaints filed by the tenderers (if any) are settled in accordance with the procedure prescribed in this Law, but not earlier than 10 days after the date of dispatch of the preliminary ranking information to the tenderers. The provision shall not apply in case the tender is submitted by only one supplier.
\n
Article 40Abnormally Low Tenders
\n
1.If, for a given contract, tenders appear to be abnormally low in relation to the supplies, works or services, the contracting authority shall request the tenderer to justify the offered price, and if the tenderer fails to produce justification to the satisfaction of the contracting authority, it shall reject the tender.
\n
2.In order to obtain justification of the abnormally low price, the contracting authority shall request in writing that the tenderer concerned provides details of the constituent elements of the tender which it considers relevant, price elements and calculations. The contracting authority shall take into consideration explanations relating to:
\n
1)the efficiency of the manufacturing process, of the services provided and of the construction method;
\n
2)the technical solutions chosen and/or the exceptionally favourable conditions available to the tenderer for the supply of the supplies and services, and the execution of the work;
\n
3)the originality of the supplies, services or work proposed by the tenderer;
\n
4)the compliance with the regulations on safety at work and working conditions, valid in the place of provision of supplies, services or performance of works;
\n
5)the possibility of the tenderer benefiting from the State aid.
\n
3.Where the contracting authority establishes that a tender is abnormally low on the grounds that the tenderer has obtained a State aid, the tender can only be rejected after consultation with the tenderer where the latter is unable to prove, within a sufficient time frame fixed by the contracting authority, that the aid in question was granted lawfully. Upon rejecting the tender on the said grounds the contracting authority shall notify the Commission of the European Communities thereof. or that the aid in question was granted with the consent of the Commission of the European Communities. State aid shall be any measure corresponding to the criteria set in paragraph 1 of Article 87 of the Treaty Establishing the European Community.
\n
Article 41Informing Candidates and Tenderers about Results
\n
1.The contracting authority shall as soon as possible, but not later than within 5 working days inform of decisions reached concerning the award of the contract, the conclusion of a framework agreement, or admittance to a dynamic purchasing system, including the grounds for any decision not to conclude a framework agreement or award a contract or to recommence the procedure or implement a dynamic purchasing system. That information shall be given in writing upon request to the contracting authorities.
\n
2.The contracting authority shall as soon as possible, but not later than within 15 days after receipt of the written request, inform:
\n
1)any candidate of the reasons for rejection of his request;
\n
2)any tenderer who has made an admissible tender of the characteristics and relative advantages of the tender selected as well as the name of the successful tenderer and of the parties to the framework agreement.
\n
3.The contracting authority may decide to withhold certain information on the contract award, referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article, where release of such information would impede law enforcement or otherwise be contrary to the public interest or would prejudice the legitimate commercial interests of suppliers or might prejudice fair competition between them.
\n
4.Where the contracting authority requested in the contract documents to provide samples of the products, it shall, after the preliminary ranking of tenders, allow all the candidates or tenderers to examine the samples presented.
\n
5.Access to the information relating to the examination, explication, evaluation and comparison of tenders shall be granted only to the Commission members and experts invited by the Commission, representatives of the Public Procurement Office, the head of the contracting authority, persons authorised by him, other persons and institutions entitled under the laws of the Republic of Lithuania to have access to such information.
\n
Article 42Types of Award Procedures
\n
1.The supplies, services or works contracts may be awarded by means of the following procedures:
\n
1)open procedure;
\n
2)restricted procedure;
\n
3)competitive dialogue procedure under the conditions set in Article 50 of this Law
\n
4)negotiated procedure with or without publication of a contract notice.
\n
2.When awarding a public contract, the contracting authority may use:
\n
1)the open or restricted tender procedures in all cases without limitations. These are the main type of award procedure;
\n
2)the competitive dialogue procedure if the conditions specified in Article 55 are present.
\n
3)the negotiated procedure with publication of a contract notice, if the conditions specified in Article 44 are present;
\n
4)the negotiated procedure without publication of a contract notice, if the conditions specified in Article 56 are present.
\n
3.In the presence of the conditions referred to in Article 67 of this Law, the contracting authority may use the design contest procedure.
\n
SECTION TWO OPEN PROCEDURE
\n
Article 43Open Procedure
\n
1.The number of tenderers in the open procedure shall be unlimited. The contracting authority shall evaluate the tenders submitted as prescribed by the contract documents by all suppliers who meet the minimum qualification requirements.
\n
2.Negotiations between the contracting authority and suppliers are not allowed in the open procedure.
\n
3.The open procedure shall occur if at least one tender meeting the requirements set forth in the contract documents is received.
\n
Article 44Time Limits in the Open Procedure
\n
1.The contracting authority shall fix the final time limit for the receipt of tenders by following provisions of Article 28 of this Law.
\n
2.The final time limit fixed for the receipt of tenders may not be shorter than 52 days from the day of dispatch of the contract notice from the Public Procurement Office.
\n
3.If the contracting authority published PIN at least 52 days but not more than 12 months before starting the procedures, and provided the information about the contract in the manner prescribed by paragraph 1 of Article 22 of this Law, then the time limits specified in paragraph 2 of this Article may be reduced to 36 days. In case of emergence of circumstances unforeseeable by the contracting authority the time limit may be shorter than 36 days but not less than 22 days from the day of dispatch of the notice from the Public Procurement Office.
\n
4.If the contracting authority draws up and transmits the notice by electronic means the time limit for the receipt of tenders referred to in paragraph 2 and 3 of this Article may be shortened by 7 days.
\n
5.The time limits for receipt of tenders referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article may be reduced by five more days where the contracting authority offers unrestricted and full direct access by electronic means to the contract documents and any supplementary documents from the date of publication of the notice in accordance with the procedure prescribed by this Law specifying in the text of the notice the internet address at which this documentation is accessible.
\n
SECTION THREE RESTRICTED PROCEDURE
\n
Article 45Restricted Procedures
\n
1.The contracting authority shall conduct the restricted procedures in two phases:
\n
1)following the procedure set forth in Articles 22 and 23, the contracting authority shall publish the contract notice and, on the basis of the criteria specified therein, select the candidates to be invited to submit their tenders;
\n
2)following the requirements set forth in the contract documents, the contracting authority shall analyse, evaluate and compare the tenders submitted by the invited tenderers.
\n
2.Negotiations between the contracting authority and suppliers are not allowed in the restricted procedure.
\n
3.The restricted procedure shall occur if at least one tender meeting the requirements set forth in the contract documents is received.
\n
Article 46Time Limits for Submission of Requests to Participate and Tenders
\n
1.The contracting authority shall fix the final time limits for submission of requests to participate and tenders by following provisions of Article 28 of this Law.
\n
2.The final time limit fixed for submission of requests to participate may not be shorter than 37 days from the day of dispatch of the notice from the Public Procurement Office.
\n
3.The time limit for submission of tender may not be shorter than 40 days after the invitations to tender are dispatched to suppliers.
\n
4.If the contracting authority published PIN at least 52 days but not more than 12 months before starting the procurement procedures, and provided the information about the contract in the manner prescribed by Article 22 of this Law, then the time limits specified in paragraph 3 of this Article may be reduced to 36 days. In case of emergence of circumstances unforeseeable by the contracting authority the time limit may be shorter than 36 days but not shorter than 22 days from the dispatch of the notice from the Public Procurement Office.
\n
5.Where the notice is drawn up and transmitted by electronic means, the time limits for submitting requests to participate referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article may be reduced by 7 days and where the contracting authority offers unrestricted and full direct access by electronic means to the contract documents specifying in the text of the notice the internet address at which this documentation is accessible, the time limit for submitting tenders, as specified in paragraph 3 of this Article, may be shortened by 5 more days.
\n
6.In case of urgency, where it is not possible to keep to the time limits specified in this Article, the contracting authority shall have the right to carry out the simplified restricted procedure and to fix a time limit for submitting requests of at least 15 days from the day the notice is dispatched from the Public Procurement Office or at least 10 where the notice was dispatched by electronic means and a time limit for submitting tenders of at least 10 days from the day of dispatch to the suppliers of the invitation to tender. The contracting authority shall state in the notice valid reasons for conducting simplified procurement procedure.
\n
Article 47Selection of candidates
\n
1.The contracting authority may fix in the contract documents (contract notice) a minimum and maximum number of candidates to be invited to submit tenders, as well as define the selection criteria and procedure to be used.
\n
2.When fixing the number of candidates and defining the selection criteria or procedure, the contracting authority shall follow the following requirements:
\n
1)the contracting authority must ensure the genuine competition;
\n
2)the selection criteria must be clear and non-discriminatory;
\n
3)the selection criteria should be based on the provisions of Articles 35 to 38.
\n
3.The minimum number of candidates to be invited to tender shall be not less than 5.
\n
4.When selecting candidates, the contracting authority shall apply only those selection criteria and procedure that are specified in the contract documents. The contracting authority shall make the selection only from those candidates who meet the minimum qualification requirements set forth by the contracting authority.
\n
5.Contracting authorities shall invite the number of candidates that is equal to the specified minimum number of candidates. Should the number of candidates meeting the minimum qualification requirements be less than the number of candidates to be invited, the contracting authority shall invite all candidates meeting the minimum qualification requirements to submit their tenders. During the procedure the contracting authority may not invite to participate in the procurement other suppliers who have not submitted requests to participate or candidates who do not meet the minimum qualification requirements.
\n
Article 48Submission of Requests to Participate in the Selection
\n
1.Requests to participate may be submitted both by an individual economic entity, or a group of economic entities as defined in paragraph 2 of Article 5 of this Law.
\n
2.Requests to participate shall be made following the requirements outlined in paragraph 8 of Article 17 of this Law by enclosing the information and documents required by the contracting authority.
\n
3.In the accelerated form of restricted procedures referred to in paragraph 6 of Article 46 of this Law, the contracting authority shall indicate in the contract documents that requests must be submitted by fax or electronic means.
\n
Article 49Invitations to Submit Tenders
\n
1.The contracting authority shall invite the candidates selected according to Article 47 to submit their tenders.
\n
2.The contracting authority shall send invitations to all the selected suppliers simultaneously in writing.
\n
3.The contract documents shall be enclosed with the invitation to submit tenders or the address where all the contract documents are available if the contracting authority provides to the candidates a possibility of unrestricted and direct access to them by electronic means.
\n
4.Where the contract documents are held not by the contracting authority but by the authorised body, the invitation shall indicate the address where to apply for requesting the documents and in appropriated cases the final date for requesting for the documents, the amount payable for the receipt of the documents and the payment procedure. Moreover, enclosed with the invitation to submit tenders must contain the following information:
\n
1)a reference to the published contract notice;
\n
2)address where the remaining contract documents can be obtained and the sum payable, if any, for obtaining them, including the manner of payment;
\n
3)the final date for the submission of the tenders, the address to which the tenders must be sent and the language or languages in which the tenders must be drawn up;
\n
4)the documents specified by the contracting authority that the suppliers must present regarding their qualification;
\n
5)tender evaluation procedure, evaluation criteria and their relative weighting, where appropriate, the descending order of importance for such criteria, if they are not given in the contract notice, the specifications or the descriptive documents;
\n
6)any other information that the contracting authority deems necessary.
\n
5.In the accelerated form of restricted procedures as prescribed by paragraph 6 of Article 46 of this Law invitations to submit tenders transmitted by fax or electronic means..
\n
SECTION FOUR COMPETITIVE DIALOGUE
\n
Article 50Conditions of Competitive Dialogue
\n
1.Where contracting authorities consider that the use of the open or restricted procedure will not allow the award of the of particularly complex contract, the latter may make use of the competitive dialogue provided that any of the following conditions is present:
\n
1)the contracting authorities are not objectively able to define the technical means of the object of procurement in accordance with subparagraps 2, 3 and 4 of paragraph 3 of Article 25, capable of satisfying their needs or objectives;
\n
2)the contracting authorities are not objectively able to specify the legal or financial make-up of the object of procurement.
\n
2.A public contract shall be awarded by using the competitive dialogue on the sole basis of the award criterion for the most economically advantageous tender.
\n
3.The contracting authority may establish prized and payments to participants in the competitive dialogue.
\n
Article 51Conduct of the Competitive Dialogue
\n
1.The contracting authority shall publish a notice of the contract in the manner set forth in Articles 22 and 23 of this Law and shall make known its needs and requirements in that notice and/or in a descriptive document.
\n
2.The contracting authority shall open, with the candidates selected in accordance with the relevant provisions of Articles 54, a dialogue the aim of which shall be to identify and define the means best suited to satisfying the needs of the contracting authority. The contracting authority may discuss all aspects of the contract with the chosen candidates during this dialogue.
\n
3.The contracting authority may provide for the procedure to take place in successive stages in order to reduce the number of solutions to be discussed during the dialogue stage by applying the award criteria in the contract notice or the descriptive document. The contract notice or the descriptive document shall indicate that recourse may be had to this option.
\n
4.The contracting authority shall continue such dialogue until it can identify the solution or solutions, if necessary after comparing them, which are capable of meeting its needs.
\n
5.Having declared that the dialogue is concluded and having so informed the participants, the contracting authority shall ask them to submit their final tenders on the basis of the solution or solutions presented and specified during the dialogue. These tenders shall contain all the elements required and necessary for the performance of the contract. These tenders may be clarified, specified and fine-tuned at the request of the contracting authority. However, such clarification, specification, fine-tuning or additional information may not involve changes to the basic features of the tender or the call for the participation in the dialogue, variations in which are likely to distort competition or have a discriminatory effect with respect to suppliers.
\n
6.The contracting authority shall assess the tenders received on the basis of the award criteria laid down in the contract notice or the descriptive document and shall choose the most economically advantageous tender. At the request of the contracting authority, the tenderer identified as having submitted the most economically advantageous tender may be asked to clarify aspects of the tender or confirm commitments contained in the tender provided this does not have the effect of modifying substantial aspects of the tender or of the call for tender and does not risk distorting competition or causing discrimination.
\n
7.During the dialogue, the contracting authority shall:
\n
1)conduct the dialogue with each supplier separately;
\n
2)not reveal to other participants information communicated by the supplier participating in the dialogue without his/her agreement, also not reveal to the supplier information about the agreements reached with other suppliers;
\n
3)ensure equality of treatment among all tenderers. In particular, the contracting authority shall not provide information in a discriminatory manner which may give some tenderers an advantage over others;
\n
4)complete minutes shall be drawn up of the dialogue. The minutes of the dialogue shall be signed by the chairman of the Commission and the authorised representative of the tenderer who has been consulted.
\n
Article 52Time Limits for Submission of Requests to Participate in the Competitive Dialogue
\n
1.The contracting authority shall fix the time limits for submission of requests to participate in the competitive dialogue according to the provisions of Article 28 of this Law.
\n
2.The time limit for submission of requests to participate in the competitive dialogue shall not be shorter than 37 days from the day of dispatch of the notice from the Public Procurement Office. The time limit may be shortened by 7 days if the contract notice is dispatched by electronic means.
\n
Article 53Pre-qualification Selection of Candidates to the Competitive Dialogue
\n
1.The pre-qualification selection of candidates to be invited to participate in the dialogue shall be conducted according to the provisions of Article 47 of this Law.
\n
2.Where the number of the suitable candidates is sufficient the contracting authority shall have the right to limit the number of candidates to be invited to participate in the competitive dialogue. The contracting authority shall indicate in the contract notice objective and non-discriminatory criteria and rules which it intends to apply when selecting the candidates, the minimum number of candidates invited to participate in the dialogue which shall be not less than 3 and, where necessary, their maximum number.
\n
3.The contracting authority shall invite to the shall invite a number of candidates at least equal to the minimum number set in advance. Where the number of candidates meeting the selection criteria and the minimum levels of ability is below the minimum number, the contracting authority may continue the procedure by inviting the candidate(s) with the required capabilities. In the context of this same procedure, the contracting authority may not include other suppliers who did not request to participate, or candidates who do not meet the minimum qualification requirements.
\n
Article 54Invitation to Take Part in the Competitive Dialogue
\n
1.The contracting authority shall simultaneously and in writing invite the candidates selected according to the procedure established in Article 53 to take part in the competitive dialogue.
\n
2.The invitation to the candidates shall include either a copy of the specifications or of the descriptive document and any supporting documents, or a reference to accessing the specifications and the other documents, when they are made directly available by electronic means in accordance with this Law. In addition, the invitation to participate in the dialogue must contain at least:
\n
1)a reference to the contract notice published;
\n
2)in the case of competitive dialogue the date and the address set for the start of dialogue and the language or languages used;
\n
3)a reference to any possible adjoining documents to be submitted, in support of verifiable qualifications established by the contracting authority;
\n
4)tender evaluation procedure, evaluation criteria, the relative weighting of criteria for the award of he contract or, where appropriate, the descending order of importance for such criteria, if they are not given in the contract notice, the specifications or the descriptive document;
\n
5)other information deemed necessary by the contracting authority.
\n
3.Where an authorised body and not the contracting authority has the contract documents, the invitation to participate in the dialogue shall state the address from which those specifications, that descriptive document and those documents may be requested and, if appropriate, the deadline for requesting such documents, and the sum payable for obtaining them and any payment procedures.
\n
SECTION FIVE NEGOTIATED PROCEDURE
\n
Article 55Conditions of the Negotiated Procedure with Publication of a Contract Notice
\n
1.Public contracts may be awarded by negotiated procedure, after publication of a contract notice, in the presence of at least one of the following conditions:
\n
1)in the event of the submission of tenders which are unacceptable in response to an open or restricted procedure or a competitive dialogue insofar as the original terms of the contract are not substantially altered;
\n
2)in exceptional cases, when the nature of works, supplies or services or the risks attaching thereto do not permit prior overall pricing;
\n
3)in the case of services, inter alia services within category 6 of Annex II A, and intellectual services such as services involving the design of works, insofar as the nature of the services to be provided is such that contract specifications cannot be established with sufficient precision to permit he award of the contract by selection of the best tender according to the rules governing open or restricted procedures;
\n
4)in respect of public works contracts, for works which are performed solely for purposes of research, testing or development and not with the aim of ensuring profitability or recovering research and development costs.
\n
Article 56Conditions of the Negotiated Procedure without Publication of a Contract Notice
\n
1.Public supply contracts, public service contracts and public works contracts may be awarded by a negotiated procedure without prior publication of a contract notice provided at least one of the following conditions is present:
\n
1)when no tenders or no suitable tenders have been submitted in response to an open or a restricted procedure or a competitive dialogue, provided that the initial conditions of contract are not substantially altered and all suppliers meeting the minimum qualification requirements set by the contracting authority are invited to negotiate;
\n
2)when no tender or no suitable tender has been submitted in response to an open procedure or restricted procedure, whereas the initial conditions of contract are not substantially altered and provided that the European Communities Commission is upon its request given a detailed report about such contract;
\n
3)when, for technical or artistic reasons, or for reasons related to the protection of exclusive rights, the supplies may be delivered, service rendered or works performed only by a particular economic entity;
\n
4)in so far as it is strictly necessary, for reasons of extreme urgency brought about by events unforeseeable by the contracting authority in question, the time limit fixed in this Law for the open, restricted or negotiated procedures with publication of a contract notice cannot be kept. The circumstances invoked to justify extreme urgency must not in any event be attributable to the contracting authority.
\n
2.As regards public supply contracts, contracting authorities may award public contracts by a negotiated procedure without prior publication of a contract notice under any of the following conditions:
\n
1)when the products involved are manufactured purely for the purpose of research, experiment, study or development, this provision does not extend to quantity production to establish commercial viability or to recover research and development costs;
\n
2)for additional deliveries by the original supplier which are intended either as a partial replacement of normal supplies or installations or as the extension of existing supplies or installations where previous contracts were effective, there is no substantial change in the prices and other conditions and a change of supplier would oblige the contracting authority to acquire material having different technical characteristics which would result in incompatibility or disproportionate technical difficulties in operation and maintenance: the length of such contracts as well as that of recurrent contracts may, as a general rule, not exceed three years following the award of the initial contract;
\n
3)for supplies quoted and purchased on a commodity market;
\n
4)for the purchase of supplies on particularly advantageous terms, from either a supplier which is definitively winding up its business activities, or the receivers or liquidators of a bankruptcy, an arrangement with creditors, or a similar procedure under other laws or regulations.
\n
3.As regards public service contracts, when the contract concerned follows a design contest and shall be awarded to the successful candidate or to one of the successful candidates: in the latter case, all successful candidates shall be invited to participate in the negotiations.
\n
4.As regards public service and works contracts, the negotiated procedure without publication of a contract notice may be applied under any of the following conditions:
\n
1)for additional services or works not included in the project initially considered or in the contract first concluded but which have, through unforeseen circumstances, become necessary for the performance of the services or works described therein, when such additional services or works cannot be technically or economically separated from the main contract without major inconvenience to the contracting authority. However, such contract may only be concluded with the economic entity to whom a first contract was awarded and the aggregate value of contracts awarded for additional services or works may not exceed 50% of the amount of the main contract.
\n
2)for new services or works consisting in the repetition of similar services or works entrusted to the economic entity to which the same contracting authorities awarded an earlier contract, provided that such services or works conform to a basic project for which a first contract was awarded according to the open or restricted procedures. As soon as the first project is put up for tender, notice must be given that this procedure might be adopted and the total estimated cost of subsequent services or works shall be taken into consideration by the contracting authority. This procedure may be only be adopted during the three years following the conclusion of the original contract.
\n
Article 57Conducting the Negotiated Procedure with or without Publication of a Contract Notice
\n
1.The contracting authority shall conduct the negotiated procedure with publication of a contract notice in the following phases:
\n
1)according to the procedure set forth in Articles 22 and 23 of this Law invite candidates to submit requests to participate in the negotiated procedure with the publication of a contract notice;
\n
2)verify qualification of the candidates who submitted requests against the minimum requirements set forth in the contract documents, and perform the selection of candidates, where applicable;
\n
3)invite candidates to submit tenders and negotiate with each one of them according to the conditions set forth in Article 58 of this Law aiming at the highest economic advantage according to the requirements set in contract documents. The contracting authority may provide for the negotiated procedure to take place in successive stages in order to reduce the number of tenders to be negotiated. The contract notice or other contract documents shall indicate whether recourse has been had to this option;
\n
4)on the basis of the tender evaluation procedure and criteria specified in the contract documents, and on the results of negotiations documented in the tenders and the minutes of the negotiations, identify the best tender.
\n
2.When applying the negotiated procedure without publication of a contract notice, the contracting authority shall:
\n
1)where more than one candidate is invited to negotiate - verify if the qualification of candidates meets the specified criteria, negotiate the technical, economic, legal and other aspects of the tender aiming at the highest economic advantage, and, based on the results of negotiations and the criteria specified in the contract documents, identify the successful tender;
\n
2)when only one candidate is invited to negotiate - verify if the qualification of the candidate meets the specified criteria, and negotiate the technical, economic, legal and other aspects of the tender aiming at the highest economic advantage. In case of negotiations without publication of a contract notice, when only one candidate is invited, the contracting authority shall not be obliged to give to the candidate all the information referred to in Article 24 of this Law, if the contracting authority deems that some items of information are not necessary.
\n
3.The negotiated procedure shall be deemed to have been conducted if there is at least one supplier, whose initial tender and the results of negotiations comply with the requirements set forth in the contract documents.
\n
Article 58Requirements with respect to the Negotiated Procedure with or without Publication of a Contract Notice
\n
1.During the negotiated procedures, the contracting authority shall comply with the following requirements:
\n
1)negotiations shall be held with each candidate separately;
\n
2)no information obtained from the supplier may be revealed to the third parties without the prior consent of the supplier; the contracting authority may not disclose any information about the solutions proposed by other suppliers;
\n
3)all tenderers shall be subject to the same requirements, shall be provided with equal opportunities and with the same information; the contracting authority shall not provide information in a discriminatory manner which may give some tenderers an advantage over others.
\n
4)the proceedings of the negotiation shall be recorded in the minutes, to be signed by the chairperson of the Commission and the authorised representative of the tenderer with whom negotiations were held.
\n
2.The contracting authority shall negotiate separately with each tenderer who submitted a tender complying with the requirements set forth in the contract documents, and shall identify the acceptable tender following the provisions of Article 39 of this Law.
\n
3.The tender of the supplier who failed to come to the negotiations without a valid reason shall be rejected.
\n
Article 59Time Limits for Submission of Requests to Participate and Tenders in Case of the Negotiated Procedure with Publication of a Contract Notice
\n
1.The contracting authority shall fix the final time limits for submission of requests to participate and tenders following provisions of Article 28 of this Law.
\n
2.The time limit for submission of requests to participate may not be shorter than 37 days from the day of dispatch of the notice from the Public Procurement Office. Where the contract notice is dispatched by electronic means the time limit may be shortened by 7 days.
\n
3.If it is not possible to keep to the time limits specified in this Article (cases of urgency), the contracting authority shall have the right to apply accelerated procedure for conducting negotiations and to fix an at least 15 days time limit from the day of dispatch of the notice from the Public Procurement Office for submitting the requests or an at least 10 days time limit where the notice was dispatched by electronic means. In the contract notice the contracting authority shall specify the reasons to justify the use of the accelerated procedure.
\n
Article 60Selection of Candidates according to Qualification Criteria in the Negotiated Procedure with Publication of the Contract Notice
\n
1.In cases of negotiated procedure with publication of the contract notice, the contracting authority may limit the number of candidates to be invited according to the rules set forth in Article 47 (except for paragraph 3). The minimum number of candidates to be invited to participate in the negotiated procedure and specified in the contract documents (contract notice or invitation to tender) shall be not less than 3.
\n
2.The selection of candidates according to qualification who will be invited to participate in the negotiated procedure shall be conducted according to the provisions of Article 47 of this Law.
\n
Article 61Submission of Requests to Participate in Negotiated Procedure with Publication of a Contract Notice
\n
1.Requests to participate in negotiated procedure with publication of a contract notice shall be submitted according to the requirements set in paragraph 8 of Article 17 of this Law. The contracting authority shall specify in the contract documents that requests to participate in the negotiated procedure must be accompanied by information and documents according to the requirements specified in the contract notice.
\n
3.In the accelerated form of negotiated procedure with publication of a contract notice specified in paragraph 3 of Article 59 of this Law, the contracting authority shall specify in the contract documents that requests for participation must be made by fax or electronic means.
\n
Article 62Invitation to Negotiate
\n
1.In the negotiated procedure with publication of a contract notice, the contracting authority shall send simultaneously invitations to negotiate in writing to all candidates selected according to the provisions of Article 60 of this Law, or, if there was no pre-qualification selection, to all candidates who meet the minimum qualification requirements.
\n
2.A copy of the contract documents shall accompany the invitation to participate in the negotiations or a reference shall be provided to accessing the documents where the suppliers are offered by electronic means an unrestricted and direct access according to the procedure set forth in this Law to all contract documents. In addition the invitation to negotiate shall contain at least the following information:
\n
1)in case of the negotiated procedure with publication of a contract notice - a reference to the publication of a contract notice;
\n
2)address from which the remaining contract documents may be requested, and the sum payable, if any, for obtaining them, as well as the manner of payment;
\n
3)the final date for the receipt of consents to negotiate, the address to which the consents must be sent and the language or languages to be used in the procedures, if the information was not submitted;
\n
4)additional documents to be submitted by suppliers to prove the qualification;
\n
5)tender evaluation procedure, evaluation criteria and their relative weight in the total score, rules and procedures of evaluation their relative weighting, where appropriate, the descending order of importance for such criteria, if they are not given in the contract notice, the specifications or other contract documents;
\n
6)any other information that the contracting authority deems necessary.
\n
3.Where the contract documents are held not by the contracting authority but by the authorised body, the invitation shall indicate the address where to apply for requesting the documents and in appropriated cases the final date for requesting for the documents, the amount payable for the receipt of the documents and the payment procedure.
\n
4.In the accelerated form of negotiated procedure with publication of a contract notice specified in paragraph 3 of Article 59 of this Law, the contracting authority shall specify in the contract documents that requests for participation must be made by fax or electronic means.
\n
SECTION SIX FRAMEWORK AGREEMENTS
\n
Article 63Framework Agreement
\n
1.The contracting authority (authorities) shall have the right to conclude framework agreement with one or several suppliers.
\n
2.The contracting authority shall comply with thte requirements of this Law both when concluding the framework agreement and when awarding contracts on its basis.
\n
3.When awarding contracts based on the framework agreement the contracting authiority For the purpose of concluding a framework agreement, contracting authorities shall comply with the requirements set forth in paragraphs 7, 8, 9,10 of this Article. The contracts may only be awarded to the suppliers who are parties to the framework agreement.
\n
4.When awarding contracts based on a framework agreement, the parties may under no circumstances make substantial amendments to the terms laid down in that framework agreement.
\n
5.The term of a framework agreement may not exceed four years, save in exceptional cases duly justified, in particular by the subject of the framework agreement.
\n
6.Contracting authorities may not use framework agreements improperly or in such a way as to prevent, restrict or distort competition.
\n
7.Where a framework agreement is concluded with a single supplier, contracts based on that agreement shall be awarded within the limits of the terms laid down in the framework agreement. For the award of those contracts, contracting authorities may consult the supplier party to the framework agreement in writing, requesting it to supplement its tender as necessary.
\n
8.Where a framework agreement is concluded with several suppliers, the latter must be at least three in number, insofar as there is a sufficient number of suppliers to satisfy the selection criteria and/or of admissible tenders which meet the award criteria.
\n
9.Contracts based on framework agreements concluded with several suppliers may be awarded either:
\n
1)by application of the terms laid down in the framework agreement without reopening competition,
\n
2)where not all the terms are laid down in the framework agreement, when the parties are again in competition on the basis of the same and, if necessary, more precisely formulated terms, and, where appropriate, other terms referred to in paragraph 10 of this Article of the framework agreement where all terms of public contract were not specified in the framework agreement.
\n
10.When the parties are again in competition, the contracting authority:
\n
1)for every contract to be awarded, shall consult in writing the suppliers capable of performing the contract;
\n
2)shall fix a time limit, which is sufficiently long to allow tenders for each specific contract to be submitted, taking into account factors such as the complexity of the subject-matter of the contract and the time needed to send in tenders;
\n
3)shall ensure that the content of tenders remains confidential until the stipulated time limit for reply has expired;
\n
4)shall award each contract to the tenderer who has submitted the best tender on the basis of the award criteria set out in the framework agreement.
\n
SECTION SEVEN OTHER PROCUREMENT PROCEDURES
\n
Article 64Dynamic Purchasing System
\n
1.The contracting authority may use dynamic purchasing systems. Applying a dynamic purchasing system and awarding the contracts under this system, the contracting authority shall make use only of electronic means.
\n
2.In order to set up a dynamic purchasing system, contracting authority shall follow the rules of the open procedure in all its phases up to the award of the contracts to be concluded under this system. All the tenderers satisfying the selection criteria and having submitted an indicative tender which complies with the contract documents shall be admitted to the system. An indicative tender is a tender that may be improved at any time of the dynamic purchasing system provided that it continues to comply with the requirements set in the contract documents.
\n
3.For the purposes of setting up the dynamic purchasing system, the contracting authority shall:
\n
1)publish a contract notice following the procedure set in Article 22 and 23 of this Law, making it clear in the notice that a dynamic purchasing system shall be applied;
\n
2)indicate in the contract documents, amongst other matters, the object of procurement envisaged under that system, as well as all the necessary information concerning the purchasing system, the electronic equipment used and the technical connection arrangements and specifications;
\n
3)indicate in the notice the internet address at which such documents may be consulted on publication of the notice and up to the expiry of the system, being offered unrestricted, direct and full access to the specification and to any additional documents.
\n
4.Contracting authorities shall give any supplier, throughout the entire period of the dynamic purchasing system, the possibility of submitting an indicative tender and of being admitted to the system under the conditions referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article. The contracting authority shall complete evaluation of the indicative tender within a maximum of 15 days from the date of its submission. The contracting authority shall have the right to extend the indicative tender evaluation period provided that no invitation to tender is issued in the meantime. The contracting authority shall inform the supplier without delay of its admittance to the dynamic purchasing system or of the rejection of its indicative tender.
\n
5.Before issuing the invitation to tender, the contracting authority shall publish a simplified contract notice o the purchasing under the dynamic system and invite all interested suppliers to submit an indicative tender, in accordance with paragraph 4 of this Article, within a time limit that may not be less than 15 days from the date on which the simplified notice was sent from the Public Procurement Office. The contracting authority may not proceed with procurement procedures until it has completed evaluation of all the indicative tenders received by that deadline.
\n
6.The contracting authority shall invite all suppliers admitted to the system to submit a tender for each specific contract to be awarded under the system. To that end it shall set a time limit for the submission of tenders.
\n
7.On the basis of the award criteria set out in the contract notice for the establishment of the dynamic purchasing system the contracting authority shall establish the tenderer which submitted the best tender and award the contract to it. Those criteria may, if appropriate, be formulated more precisely in the invitation referred to in the paragraph 6 of this Article.
\n
8.A dynamic purchasing system may not last for more than four years, except in cases duly justified by the contracting authority.
\n
9.The contracting authority may not resort to the dynamic purchasing system to prevent, restrict or distort competition.
\n
10.The contracting authority shall not bill any charges to the interested suppliers or to parties to the dynamic purchasing system.
\n
Article 65Electronic Auction
\n
1.The contracting authority may use electronic auctions in open, restricted or negotiated procedures in the case referred to in subparagraph 1 of paragraph 1 of Article 55 of this Law. In the same circumstances, an electronic auction may be held on the reopening of competition among the parties to a framework agreement and on the opening for competition of contracts to be awarded under the dynamic purchasing system.
\n
2.Tenders submitted to the electronic auction shall be evaluated on the basis of:
\n
1)either solely on prices when the contract is awarded to the lowest price,
\n
2)or on prices and/or on the new values of the features of the tenders indicated in the contract documents when the contract is awarded to the supplier who submitted the most economically advantageous tender.
\n
3.The contracting authority, which decides to hold an electronic auction, shall state that fact in the contract notice. The notice shall include, inter alia, the following information:
\n
1)the features, the values for which will be the subject of electronic auction, provided that such features are quantifiable and can be expressed in figures or percentages;
\n
2)any limits on the values which may be submitted, as they result from the specifications relating to the subject of the contract;
\n
3)the information which will be made available to tenderers in the course of the electronic auction and, where appropriate, when it will be made available to them;
\n
4)the relevant information concerning the electronic auction process;
\n
5)the conditions under which the tenderers will be able to bid and, in particular, the minimum differences which will, where appropriate, be required when bidding;
\n
6)the relevant information concerning the electronic equipment used and the arrangements and technical specifications for connection.
\n
4.Before proceeding with an electronic auction the contracting authority shall:
\n
1)make a full initial evaluation of the tenders in accordance with the award criterion of the most economically advantageous tender and with the weighting fixed for them.
\n
2)invite simultaneously by electronic means all tenderers who have submitted admissible tenders to submit new prices and/or new values. The invitation shall contain all relevant information concerning individual connection to the electronic equipment being used and shall state the date and time of the start of the electronic auction. The electronic auction may take place in a number of successive phases. The electronic auction may not start sooner than two working days after the date on which invitations are sent out.
\n
5.When the contract is to be awarded on the basis of the most economically advantageous tender, the invitation shall be accompanied by the outcome of a full evaluation of the relevant tenderer. The invitation shall also state the mathematical formula to be used in the electronic auction to determine automatic rerankings on the basis of the new prices and/or new values submitted. That formula shall incorporate the weighting of all the criteria fixed to determine the most economically advantageous tender, as indicated in the contract notice or in other contract documents. Where variants are authorised, a separate formula shall be provided for each variant.
\n
6.Throughout each phase of an electronic auction the contracting authority shall instantaneously communicate to all tenderers at least sufficient information to enable them to ascertain their relative rankings at any moment. They may also communicate other information concerning other prices or values submitted, provided that that is stated in the contracts documents. It may also at any time announce the number of participants in that phase of the auction. In no case, however, may it disclose the identities of the tenderers during any phase of an electronic auction.
\n
7.The contracting authority shall close an electronic auction in one or more of the following manners:
\n
1)in the invitation to take part in the auction it shall indicate the date and time fixed in advance;
\n
2)when it receives no more new prices or new values which meet the requirements concerning minimum differences. In that event, the contracting authority shall state in the invitation to take part in the auction the time which it will allow to elapse after receiving the last submission before it closes the electronic auction;
\n
3)when the number of phases in the auction, fixed in the invitation to take part in the auction, has been completed. When the contracting authority has decided to close an electronic auction in accordance with this subparagraph, or possibly in combination with the arrangements laid down in subparagraph (2) of this paragraph, the invitation to take part in the auction shall indicate the timetable for each phase of the auction.
\n
8.After closing an electronic auction the contracting authority shall determine the winner on the basis of the results of the electronic auction who will be awarded the contract.
\n
9.The contracting authority may not have improper recourse to electronic auctions nor may it use them in such a way as to prevent, restrict or distort competition or to change the subject of the contract, as indicated in the published contract notice and defined in other contract documents.
\n
Article 66Public Works Contracts: Particular Rules on Subsidised Housing Schemes
\n
1.In the case of public contracts relating to the design and construction of a subsidised housing scheme the size and complexity of which, and the estimated duration of the work involved require that planning be based from the outset on close collaboration within a team comprising representatives of the contracting authorities, experts and the contractor to be responsible for carrying out the works, special rules may be adopted for selecting the contractor most suitable for integration into the team. The rules shall be approved according to Articles 3, 17, 19, 22, 23, 27, 28, 33 to 38 and 41 of this Law.
\n
2.In particular, the contracting authority shall include in the contract notice as accurate as possible a description of the works to be carried out so as to enable interested contractors to form a valid idea of the project. Furthermore, the contracting authority shall state in the contract notice the selection criteria set for the suppliers.
\n
SECTION EIGHT DESIGN CONTESTS
\n
Article 67Cases Justifying the Use of the Design Contest Procedure
\n
Design contest may be used when awarding contracts for area planning, architecture, engineering, data processing or other services of a similar character.
\n
Article 68Conducting a Design Contest
\n
1.A design contest shall be advertised following the provisions in Articles 18 and 19.
\n
2.The design contest shall be conducted in order to determine the supplier/suppliers who submitted the best plan or design (usually of area planning, architecture, civil engineering or data processing), where it is intended:
\n
1)to award a service contract to the winner of the contest;
\n
2)to provide prizes to the winner or winners of the contest, or other rewards for participation. In this case the contracting authority may continue the services contract award procedure by means of the negotiated procedure without publication of a contract notice, inviting to negotiate the winner or all winners (top rated tenderers) of the contest.
\n
3.Both legal and natural persons shall be allowed to take part in the design contest.
\n
4.The admission of tenderers to design contests shall not be limited by reference to the specific territory or other restriction of discriminatory nature.
\n
5.The final date fixed for receipt of tenders in the contract documents may not be shorter than 52 days after the date of dispatching the design contest notice for publication from the Public Procurement Office.
\n
6.The contracting authority may decide to conduct pre-qualification selection of candidates to be invited to submit their designs or projects. In such event, the contracting authority shall fix non-discriminatory qualification criteria capable of ensuring the genuine competition.
\n
7.The Government of the Republic of Lithuania or the institution authorised by it shall approve the rules for organising a design contest.
\n
Article 69The Jury
\n
1.The projects and drawings of the tenderers shall be assessed by the jury, formed by the contracting authority or the authorised body. The contracting authority must fully authorise the jury to perform the assessment of the design or project and identify the winner. The jury shall be composed exclusively of natural persons who are independent of tenderers in the contest. Only natural persons of impeccable reputation who have signed a declaration of impartiality and a statement of confidentially shall be appointed chairman and members of the jury. Where a particular professional qualification is required from participants in a contest, at least a third of the members of the jury shall have that qualification. The jury shall take decisions only at the sitting. Complete minutes shall be drawn up of the sittings of the jury.
\n
2.The jury shall be autonomous in its decisions or opinions. Only anonymously submitted projects shall be evaluated (the jury may find out the name of the tenderer only after the jury has taken a decision as regards the best design or project).
\n
3.The submitted designs and projects shall be evaluated subject to the evaluation criteria set forth in the contract documents, and these shall not be necessarily based on the lowest price or the highest economic advantage. The jury shall record its ranking of projects in a report, signed by its members, made according to the merits of each project, together with its remarks and any points which may need clarification.
\n
4.After the jury reaches a consensus or makes a decision candidates may be invited, if need be, to answer questions which the jury has recorded in the minutes. Complete minutes shall be drawn up of the dialogue between jury members and candidates.
\n
CHAPTER III
\n
procurement PROCEDURES of entities operating in water, energy, transport and POSTAL SERVICES sectors
\n
Article 70Regulation of Procurement Procedures of Entities Operating in Water, Energy, Transport or Postal Services Sectors
\n
1.This Chapter shall apply where contracting authorities operating in water, energy, transport and postal services sectors award public contracts necessary for one or several of the activities listed in paragraph 2 below. These contracting authorities shall include:
\n
1)contracting authorities defined in subparagraphs 1, 2 and 3 of paragraph 1 of Article 3;
\n
2)state or municipal undertakings;
\n
3)any undertaking over which the contracting authority referred to in subparagraph 1 of this paragraph can exert a dominant influence, whether directly or indirectly, as a result of ownership, financial participation or the rules which regulate the activities of the undertaking. A dominant influence on the part of the contracting authority shall be presumed when, directly or indirectly in relation to another undertaking, it: holds a majority of the undertaking's subscribed capital or controls a majority of the votes attached to the shares issued by the undertaking or can appoint more than half of the undertaking's administrative, management or supervisory body members;
\n
4)undertakings granted by the competent authority special or exclusive rights to carry out an activity specified in paragraph 2 of this Article. As used in this Article, special and exclusive rights shall mean rights granted by the competent authority by law or any other legal acts to one or several undertakings to carry out the activity indicated in paragraph 2 of this Law, which therefore has a substantive effect on the possibilities of other undertakings to carry out the activity.
\n
2.Activities in the water, energy, transport and postal services sectors include:
\n
1)the provision to other persons of fixed networks intended to provide public services to the public in connection with the production, transport or distribution of drinking water, energy, gas or heat, where the networks are operated by the contracting authority or provided by the contacting authority to other persons, the activities of operation, maintenance or exploitation of fixed networks as well as activities pertaining to the supply of drinking water, electricity, gas or heat to such networks;
\n
2)the activities of hydraulic engineering projects, irrigation or land drainage connected with production, supply or distribution of drinking water, provided that more than 20% of the total volume of water made available by such projects or irrigation or drainage installations shall be supplied as drinking water;
\n
3)the activities of sewage disposal or treatment connected with the production, supply or distribution of drinking water;
\n
4)the provision to other persons, operation, maintenance or exploitation of networks required for providing a service to the public in the field of transport by railway, automated systems, trolley bus, bus or cable. A network shall be considered to exist where the service is provided under operating conditions laid down by a competent authority, such as conditions on the routes to be served, the capacity to be made available or the frequency of the service. The provision of bus transport services to the public shall not be considered an activity regulated by this Law, where any other entity is free to provide the same services as those specified by the contracting authority;
\n
5)the operation, maintenance or exploitation of a geographical area for the purpose of exploring for or extracting oil, gas, coal or other solid fuels;
\n
6)the exploitation of a geographical area for the purpose of the provision of airport, maritime or inland port or other terminal facilities to carriers by air, sea or inland waterway;
\n
7)the provision of postal services. For the purpose of this Law postal services and postal item shall be used within the meaning defined in the Postal Law of the Republic of Lithuania;
\n
8)the provision of services other than postal services on condition that such services are provided by an economic entity, which also provides postal services. Other services than postal services shall be: mail service management services (services both preceding and subsequent to despatch, such as \"mailroom management services\"), added-value services linked to and provided entirely by electronic means (including the secure transmission of coded documents by electronic means, address management services and transmission of registered electronic mail), services concerning postal items not defined in the Postal Law of the Republic of Lithuania, such as direct mail bearing no address, financial services except for those referred to in subparagraph 2 of paragraph 2 of Article 10 of this Law, including in particular postal money orders and postal giro transfers; philatelic services, and logistics services (services combining physical delivery and/or warehousing with other non-postal functions).
\n
3.The activities in the water and energy sectors shall be not regarded as the activities referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article, if they are performed by the contracting authorities indicated in subparagraphs 2, 3 and 4 of paragraph 1 of this Law to supply to the fixed networks intended to provide a service to the public:
\n
1)gas or heat, where the production of gas or heat by the entity concerned is the unavoidable consequence of carrying on activities other than those referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article and supply to the public network is aimed only at the economic exploitation of such production and amounts to not more than 20% of the entity's turnover having regard to the average for the preceding three years, including the current year;
\n
2)in the case of energy where the production of energy is conditioned by the activity other than that referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article, and supply to the public network depends only on the entity's own consumption and has not exceeded 30% of the entity's total production of energy having regard to the average for the preceding three years, including the current year;
\n
3)drinking water, where the production of drinking water is the unavoidable consequence of carrying on activities other than those referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article and supply to the public network is aimed only at the economic exploitation of such production and amounts to not more than 30% of the entity's average amount of drinking water production for the preceding three years, including the current year.
\n
Article 71Procedure for Establishing whether a Given Activity is Directly Exposed to Competition
\n
1.Contracts intended to enable an activity mentioned in Article 70 to be carried out shall not be subject to this Law if the activity is directly exposed to competition on markets to which access is not restricted.
\n
2.For the purposes of paragraph 1 of this Article, the question of whether an activity is directly exposed to competition shall be decided. On the basis of criteria that are in conformity with provisions on competition of the Treaty Establishing the European Community, such as the characteristics of the goods or services concerned, the existence of alternative goods or services, the prices and the actual or potential presence of more than one supplier of the goods or services in question.
\n
3.Access to a market shall be deemed not to be restricted if the provisions of the legal acts of the European Community have been implemented and applied. If free access to a given market cannot be presumed on the basis of the first subparagraph, it must be demonstrated that access to the market in question is free de facto and de jure.
\n
4.The application to apply paragraph 1 of this Article may be filed to the Commission of the European Communities by the contracting authority itself or by the authorised state bodies according to their competence. The application shall be filed according to the 2005/15/EC: Commission Decision of 7 January 2005 on the detailed rules for the procedure provided for in Article 30 of Directive 2004/17/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council coordinating the procurement procedures of entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services sectors.
\n
Article 72Types of Procurement Procedures Used by Entities Operating in the Water, Energy, Transport or Postal Services Sectors
\n
1.The contracting authorities may award contracts according to the following procedures:
\n
1)by means of the open procedure;
\n
2)by means of the restricted procedure;
\n
3)by means of negotiated procedure (with or without publication of a contract notice).
\n
2.The contracting authority may use the open procedure, the restricted procedure or the negotiated procedure with publication of a contract notice in all cases without limitations provided that the contract notice was published according to the requirements set in Article 74 of this Law.
\n
3.In cases specified in Article 73 of this Law, the contracting authority may choose not to publish a contract notice and award the contract by means of the negotiated procedure without publication of a contract notice.
\n
4.The contract may be awarded by using the design contest in cases referred to in Article 66.
\n
5.The contracting authority may award contracts using the dynamic purchasing system or the electronic auction as specified in Article 64 and 65 of this Law. The contracting authority may apply electronic auctions to award contracts by means of the open procedure, restricted procedure or negotiated procedure with publication of a contract notice provided that the subject matter of the contract may be given a precise description. Electronic auction may also be used for the award of contract using the dynamic purchasing system.
\n
Article 73Cases where Procurement by Means of Negotiated Procedure without Publication of a Contract Notice is Allowed
\n
1.Supply, services or works contracts may be awarded by means of negotiated procedure without publication of a contract notice if there is at least one of the conditions given below:
\n
1)when no tenders or no requests to participate have been submitted in response to an open, restricted procedure or negotiated procedure with publication of a contract notice, or when all tenderers have failed to meet the set requirements, provided that the initial conditions of contract are not substantially altered;
\n
2)where a contract is purely for the purpose of research, experiment, study or development, and not for the purpose of securing a profit or of recovering research and development costs, and in so far as the award of such contract does not prejudice the competitive award of subsequent contracts;
\n
3)when, for technical or artistic reasons, the supplies may be delivered, services rendered and works performed only by a particular economic entity having the exclusive rights to produce (supply, perform) these products, works or services and there is no other alternative;
\n
4)when, for reasons of extreme urgency brought about by events unforeseeable by the contracting authority in question, the time limit for the open, restricted or negotiated procedures with publication of a contract notice cannot be kept within the time limits fixed by this Law.
\n
5)when contracts are awarded on the basis of the framework agreement concluded according to the procedure prescribed by this Law.
\n
2.Supply contracts may also be awarded without the publication of a contract notice in the following cases:
\n
1)where the contracting authority had previous contracts with the same supplier of goods and determined, that, from the technical compatibility point of view, it is reasonable to procure the additional supplies from the same supplier, provided that such earlier contracts were efficient, and that changing the supplier would result in technical incompatibility, where the new suppliers or services could not be operated together with the previously procured supplies or services, or the contracting authority could incur considerable losses;
\n
2)for supplies quoted and purchased on a commodity market;
\n
3)for bargain purchases, where it is possible to procure supplies by taking advantage of a particularly advantageous opportunity available for a very short time at a price considerably lower than normal market prices;
\n
4)for purchases of supplies under particularly advantageous conditions from a supplier who is ceasing to trade on a permanent basis or is involved in insolvency or bankruptcy proceedings, or is in the process of restructuring.
\n
3.In case of public service contracts, when the contract concerned follows a design contest and is awarded to the successful candidate or to one of the successful candidates: in the latter case, all successful candidates shall be invited to participate in the negotiations.
\n
4.As regards public service contracts and public works contracts for additional services or works not included in the project initially considered or in the contract first concluded but which have, through unforeseen circumstances, become necessary for the performance of the services or works described therein, when such additional services or works cannot be technically or economically separated from the main contract without major inconvenience to the contracting authorities, or which, even though separable from the principal contract, are necessary for the performance of the principal contract at its later stages.
\n
5.For new works consisting of the repetition of similar works entrusted to the economic entity to whom the same contracting authorities awarded an earlier contract, provided that such works conform to a basic project for which a first contract was awarded according to the open or restricted procedures or negotiated procedure with publication of a contract notice, where the total estimated cost of subsequent works has been taken into consideration, and that the possibility of additional contracts has been pointed out in the contract notice and all the above-mentioned contracts were intended for the performance of the same project..
\n
Article 74Contract Notices
\n
1.The contracting authority shall at least once per year publish, according to the terms and procedure prescribed in Articles 22 and 23 of this Law, a prior indicative notice of planned procurement.
\n
2.Publishing a regular indicative notice of the planned procurement, especially of large scale projects, the contracting authority may refrain from repeating in the notice the information that has already been published provided that it is expressly stated that this is an additional notice.
\n
3.In case of a supplies, services or works contract a call for competition shall be made by one of the following methods:
\n
1)by a regular indicative notice or
\n
2)by a notice of the presence of the qualification system or
\n
3)by a contract notice.
\n
4.Where a call for competition is made by a regular indicative notice of the planned procurement, the notice shall be published at least 12 months before the date of dispatch of invitation under Article 78 of this Law and shall contain an indication that there shall be no publication of a separate contract notice. Moreover the contracting authority shall be obliged to comply with the time limits for the submission of requests and tenders set in Article 75 of this Law.
\n
5.Having decided to use the qualification system as prescribed by Article 77 of this Law, the contracting authority shall publish a notice to the effect, specifying the purpose and requirements of the qualification system. In case the intended period of application of the qualification system is in over three years, the notice shall be published every year and in case of a shorter period of application the notice shall be published one time.
\n
6.In case of the dynamic purchasing system invitation to take part in the system procedures shall be made by a contract notice referred to in subparagraph 3 of paragraph 3 of this Article while a call for competition for a specific contract shall be made by a simplified notice used in the application of the dynamic purchasing system.
\n
7.Having awarded the contract the contracting authority shall publish a notice of:
\n
1)the award of the contract, including the conclusion of the framework agreement, within two months of the award of the contract and conclusion of the framework agreement. The contacting authority shall not be bound to publish a notice in case it awards a contract on the basis of the framework agreement;
\n
2)the award of the contract based on a dynamic purchasing system not later than within two months after the award of every contract or it may publish the grouped notices on a quarterly basis.
\n
8.The contracting authority shall publish the results of the design contest within 2 months from the approval of the results of the design contest.
\n
9.The contract award notice, including the conclusion of the framework agreement and design contest results notice shall not contain any confidential information, referred to by the contracting authority as commercial secret: the number of the received tenders, the identity of the supplier or prices. The information shall be published only in the simplified form for the purpose of statistics.
\n
10.Where the contracting authority awards a research-and-development service contract, in the contract award notice:
\n
1)it may limit the information provided concerning the nature and quantity of the services provided to the reference \"research and development services\"(\"R& D contract\") where the contract is awarded by way of a procedure without a call for competition;
\n
2)the contracting authority may, on grounds of commercial confidentiality, limit the information provided concerning the nature and quantity of the services supplied where the contracting authority awards an R& D contract, which cannot be awarded by way of a procedure without a call for competition;
\n
3)the contracting authority shall ensure that any information referred to is no less detailed than that contained in the notice of the call for competition published in accordance with paragraph 3 of this Article 42;
\n
4)the contracting authority shall ensure that any information referred If they use a qualification system, contracting entities shall ensure in such cases that such information is no less detailed than the category referred to in the list of qualified service providers.
\n
11.The contracting authority must possess documents confirming the sending in due time the notices specified in this Article.
\n
Article 75Time Limits
\n
1.Time limits in the procedures depend on the type of procedure. The contracting authority shall fix the time limits for submission of requests and tenders according to the provisions of Article 28 of this Law, by taking into account the complexity of the contract and the time necessary for drawing up the requests to participate and tenders.
\n
2.In case of the open procedure, the time limit of 52 from the day of dispatch from the Public Procurement Office of the notice specified in paragraph 3 of Article 74 of this Law shall apply.
\n
3.In restricted procedures and in negotiated procedures with publication of a contract notice according to the provisions of subparagraph 3 of paragraph 3 of Article 74 of this Law or dispatch of the invitation referred to in paragraph 2 of Article 78 of this Law, the time limit fixed for submission of requests to participate may not be shorter than 37 days from the dispatch of the notice from the Public Procurement Office or from the day of sending of the invitation. The time limit may, upon emergence of circumstance unforeseeable by the contracting authority, be shortened but may not be shorter than 22 days and at not shorter than 15 days if the notice is transmitted by electronic means.
\n
4.In case of restricted procedure or negotiated procedure with publication of a contract notice, the time limit for receipt of tenders may be set by mutual agreement between the contracting authority and the selected suppliers, provided that all candidates have the same time to prepare and submit their tenders. Where it is not possible to reach agreement on the time limit for receipt of tenders, the contracting authority shall fix a time limit which shall be at least 24 days from the day of dispatch of the invitation to tender or, in case of emergence of circumstance unforeseeable by the contracting authority, the time limit may be shortened but may not be shorter than 10 days from the date of the dispatch of invitation to tender.
\n
5.If the contracting authority published PIN at least 52 days but not more than 12 months before starting the procedures, and provided the information about the contract in the manner prescribed by paragraph 1 of Article 22 of this Law, then the time limits specified in paragraph 2 of this Article may be reduced to 36 days. In case of emergence of circumstances unforeseeable by the contracting authority the time limit may be shorter than 36 days but not less than 22 days from the day of dispatch of the notice from the Public Procurement Office.
\n
6.If the contracting authority draws up and transmits the notice by electronic means in accordance with the requirements set by this Law, the time limit for the receipt of requests to participate in case of restricted procedure and negotiated procedure and receipt of tenders in case of open procedures may be shortened by 7 days.
\n
7.Where the contracting authority offers unrestricted and full direct access by electronic means to the contract documents and any supplementary documents from the date of publication of the notice, the time limits for the receipt of tenders in case of open, restricted and negotiated procedures may be reduced by five more days, except in cases where, in the award of contracts by restricted procedure or by negotiated procedure with publication of a contract notice, the time limit for the receipt of tenders may be set by mutual agreement between the contracting authority and the selected suppliers. The notice shall specify the Internet address at which this documentation is accessible.
\n
8.the cumulative effect of the reductions provided for in paragraphs 5, 6 and 7 may in no case result in a time limit for receipt of tenders in an open procedure of less than 15 days from the date on which the contract notice is transmitted. However, if the contract notice is not transmitted by fax or electronic means, the cumulative effect of the reductions provided for in paragraphs 5, 6 and 7 may in no case result in a time limit for receipt of tenders in an open procedure of less than 22 days from the date on which the contract notice is transmitted.
\n
9.In restricted and negotiated procedures, the cumulative effect of the reductions provided for in paragraphs 5, 6 and 7 may in no case be shorter than 15 days from the date on which the contract notice or the invitation is transmitted, and the time limit for the receipt of tenders, except for the time limit set by mutual agreement between the contracting authority and the selected suppliers, result in a time limit for the receipt of tenders of less than 10 days from the date of the invitation to tender.
\n
10.If, for whatever reason, the contract documents or additional information, although requested in good time, have not been supplied within the time limits set in Articles 27 of this Law, or where tenders can be made only after a visit to the site or after on-the-spot inspection of the contract documents, the contracting authority shall extend the time limits for the receipt of tenders accordingly so that all suppliers concerned may be aware of all the information needed for the preparation of a tender and publish a notice about it according to the procedure set in Article 23 of this Law. The time limit set by mutual agreement by the contracting authority and the selected suppliers may be refused extension.
\n
Article 76Verifying Suppliers’ Qualification and Pre-qualification Selection
\n
1.When awarding the contract by open, restricted or negotiated procedure, the contracting authority shall verify the suppliers’ qualification according to the requirements set by it. Qualification requirements shall be set based on the provisions of Articles 32, 33. 34. 35, 36, 37 of this Law. All interested suppliers shall be introduced to the qualification requirements.
\n
2.In restricted or negotiated procedures, the contracting authority shall select the candidates according to the established pre-qualification selection criteria and requirements based on the objective need of the contracting authority to reduce the number of candidates to a level which is justified by the need to balance the particular characteristics of the procurement procedure with the resources required to conduct it; however, the number of candidates selected shall take account of the need to ensure adequate competition.
\n
3.When awarding contract the contracting authority may create the qualification system or use one created by other contracting authorities as prescribed by Article 77 of this Law.
\n
4.The contracting authority, which selects candidates for restricted or negotiated procedures, shall do so according to objective equal rules and criteria.
\n
5.When selecting candidates to participate in a restricted or negotiated procedure the contracting authority shall not impose on certain suppliers administrative, technical or financial mutual recognition conditions nor require tests or evidence which would duplicate objective evidence already available.
\n
Article 77Qualification System
\n
1.The contracting authority may establish and operate a system of qualification of suppliers. The contracting authority which establishes and operates the system shall ensure that suppliers are at all times able to request qualification. The decision concerning the inclusion or refusal to include the supplier in the list of qualified suppliers shall be taken by the contracting authority within 36 months from the submission of the request.
\n
2.The suppliers’ qualification for the purpose of establishing the qualification system may involve different qualification stages.
\n
3.The qualification system shall be operated on the basis of objective criteria and rules for qualification established by the contracting authority. Where those criteria and rules include technical specifications, the provisions of Article 25 shall apply.
\n
4.The criteria and rules for qualification assessment shall include the exclusion criteria listed in Article 33 of this Law on the terms and conditions set out therein.
\n
5.Where the criteria and rules for qualification assessment include requirements relating to the suppliers’ economic and financial capacity as well as technical and/or professional abilities, the latter may where necessary rely on the capacity or abilities of other entities, whatever the legal nature of the link between itself and those entities. In this case the supplier must prove to the contracting authority that these resources will be available to it throughout the period of the validity of the qualification system. Under the same conditions, a group of economic entities may rely on the capacity and abilities of participants in the group or of other entities.
\n
6.The criteria and rules for qualification shall be made available to economic entities on request. Where necessary the criteria and rules may be updated. The updating of these criteria and rules shall be communicated to interested economic entities.
\n
7.Having assessed the suppliers’ qualification the contracting authority shall compile the list of qualified suppliers. Compiling the list the suppliers may be divided into separate categories to which appropriate qualification requirements shall be applied taking into account the type of the contract for which the qualification is valid.
\n
8.When establishing or operating the suppliers’ qualification system, the contracting authority shall in particular:
\n
1)publish a notice of the existence of a system of qualification following the provisions of paragraph 5 of Article 74 of this Law;
\n
2)deliver the information to economic entities having applied for qualification concerning their recording in the qualification system as specified in paragraphs 2, 3 and 4 of Article 79 of this Law;
\n
3)perform the selection of participants on the basis of equivalent criteria when a call for competition or participation in the negotiated procedure is made by means of a notice on the existence of a qualification system;
\n
4)comply with the provisions regarding the requirements for mutual recognition concerning administrative, technical or financial conditions, certificates, tests and evidence as wet forth in paragraph 5 of Article 76 of this Law and Article 37 of this Law when selecting participants for the competition and restricted procedure, deciding on qualification or updating rules or criteria.
\n
9.The contracting authority may remove the supplier from the list of qualified suppliers only in cases where the supplier’s qualification does not meet the criteria of qualification system established by the contracting authority.
\n
Article 78Invitation to Submit Tenders or to Negotiate
\n
1.The contracting authority shall invite by a written invitation the candidates selected according to the procedure established in a 76 of this Law to submit tenders or to negotiate. The content of the invitation shall be specified by Articles 49 and 62 of this Law.
\n
2.In the cases where by publication of a regular indicative notice a call for competition is made, the contracting authority, before commencing the selection of participants in the restricted or negotiated procedure shall invite all candidates to confirm their agreement to participate in the procurement procedures. The invitation shall contain at least the following information:
\n
1)nature and quantity, including all options concerning complementary contracts and, if possible, the estimated time available for exercising these options for renewable contracts, the nature and quantity and, if possible, the estimated publication dates of future notices of competition for works, supplies or services to be put out to tender;
\n
2)type of procedure: restricted or negotiated;
\n
3)where appropriate, the date on which the delivery of supplies or the execution of works or services is to commence or terminate;
\n
4)the address and closing date for the submission of requests for tender documents and the language or languages in which they are to be drawn up;
\n
5)the address of the entity, which is to award the contract and the information necessary for obtaining the specifications and other documents;
\n
6)economic and technical conditions, financial guarantees and information required from suppliers;
\n
7)the amount and payment procedures for any sum payable for obtaining tender documents;
\n
8)the form of the contract, which is the subject of the invitation to tender: purchase, lease, hire or hire-purchase, or any combination of these;
\n
9)the contract award criteria and their weighting or, where appropriate, the order of importance of such criteria, if this information is not given in the indicative notice or the specifications or in the invitation to tender or to negotiate.
\n
Article 79Information to Suppliers about the Results of Procurement Procedures and Qualification Assessment
\n
1.The contracting authority shall inform the candidates and the participants of the results of the procurement procedures following the requirements set in paragraphs 1, 2, 3 of Article 41 of this Law.
\n
2.The contracting authority which establishes and operates a system of qualification shall uniform of its decision to enter the supplier in the list of qualified suppliers within a period of six months. If the decision will take longer than four months from the presentation of the supplier’s application, the contracting authority shall inform the applicant, within two months of the application, of the reasons justifying the longer period and of the date by which his application will be accepted or refused.
\n
3.The suppliers whose qualification does not meet the requirements of the qualification system of the contracting authority shall be informed of this decision and the reasons for refusal as soon as possible and under no circumstances more than 15 days later than the date of the decision. The reasons shall be based on the criteria for the assessment of the suppliers’ qualification referred to in paragraphs 2 and 3 of a 77 of this Law.
\n
4.Any intention to remove the economic entity from the list of qualified suppliers shall be notified in writing to the economic entity beforehand, at least 15 days before the date of removal, together with the reason or reasons justifying the proposed action.
\n
Article 80Design Contest
\n
Requirements to design contests shall be regulated in Section Eight of Chapter II of this Law.
\n
Article 81Specifics of Framework Agreements
\n
1.The contracting authority shall conclude a framework agreement in compliance with the requirements of this Chapter in the same manner as prescribed for the award of contracts by paragraphs 26 to 29 of Article 2 of this Law.
\n
2.Where the contracting authority has concluded a framework agreement following the requirements set in paragraph 1 of this Article, it may award a contract on the basis of the agreement by means of negotiated procedure without publication of the contract notice subject to the condition specified in subparagraph 5 of paragraph 1 of Article 73 of this Law.
\n
3.The contracting authority may not abuse the framework agreement with a view to preventing, restricting or distorting competition.
\n
Article 82Tenders Comprising Products Originating in Third Countries
\n
1.This Article shall apply to tenders covering products originating in third countries with which the European Community has not concluded, whether multilaterally or bilaterally, an agreement ensuring comparable and effective access for Community undertakings to the markets of those third countries. It shall be without prejudice to the obligations of the European Community or its Member States in respect of third countries.
\n
2.Any tender submitted for the award of a supply contract may be rejected where the proportion of the products originating in third countries, as determined in accordance with Council Regulation (EEC) No 2913/92 of 12 October 1992 establishing the Community Customs Code (30), exceeds 50 % of the total value of the products constituting the tender. For the purposes of this Article, software used in telecommunications network equipment shall be regarded as products.
\n
3.Subject to the second subparagraph, where two or more tenders are equivalent in the light of the contract award criteria, preference shall be given to those tenders, which may not be rejected pursuant to paragraph 2 of this Article. The prices of those tenders shall be considered equivalent for the purposes of this Article, if the price difference does not exceed 3 %. However, a tender shall not be preferred to another pursuant to the first subparagraph where its acceptance would oblige the contracting entity to acquire equipment having technical characteristics different from those of existing equipment, resulting in incompatibility, technical difficulties in operation and maintenance, or disproportionate costs.
\n
4.For the purposes of this Article, those third countries to which the benefit of the provisions of this Directive has been extended by a Council Decision shall not be taken into account for determining the proportion, referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article, of products originating in third countries.
\n
Article 83Provision of Information on the Award of Contracts in Third Countries
\n
1.The contracting authority and the suppliers shall inform the Ministry of Economy of any general difficulties, in law or in fact, encountered and reported by them in securing the award of service contracts in third countries. The Ministry of Economy shall provide the information to the Commission of the European Communities.
\n
2.The contracting authorities and suppliers shall inform the Ministry of Social Security and Labour of the Republic of Lithuania of any difficulties, in law or in fact, encountered by them when endeavouring to award service contacts in third countries which are due to the non-observance of the following international labour law provisions:
\n
1)Convention 87 on Freedom of Association and the Protection of the Right to Organise;
\n
2)Convention 98 on the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining;
\n
3)Convention 29 on Forced Labour;
\n
4)Convention 105 on the Abolition of Forced Labour;
\n
5)Convention 138 on Minimum Age;
\n
6)Convention 111 on Discrimination (Employment and Occupation);
\n
7)Convention 100 on Equal Remuneration;
\n
8)Convention 182 on Worst Forms of Child Labour.
\n
3.The Ministry of Social Security and Labour of the Republic of Lithuania shall submit the information specified in paragraph 2 of this Article to the Commission of the European Communities.
\n
CHAPTER IV
\n
SIMPLIFIED PROCUREMENT PROCEDURES SECTION ONE GENERAL PROVISIONS
\n
Article 84Public Contracts subject to this Chapter, and Award Procedures
\n
This Chapter regulates awarding of the following public contracts (hereinafter referred to as simplified procurement procedure):
\n
1)contracts the value whereof is below the international thresholds referred to in Article 11 of this Law;
\n
2)contracts for B type services (Annex 2 to this Law) regardless of the value of contract;
\n
3)contracts referred to in paragraph 14 of Article 9 of this Law.
\n
Article 85Simplified Procurement Contracts Awarded by Contracting Authorities Operating in the Water, Energy, Transport or Postal Services Sectors
\n
Contracting authorities operating in the water, energy, transport or postal services sectors shall award the simplified procurement public contracts according to the procurement procedure approved by the contracting authority, provided that the procedure meets the public procurement principles and objectives set forth in Article 3 of this Law. The contract notices, however, which, according to the approved procedure, are to be published shall be subject to the rules established in paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 of Article 89 of this Law. The contracting authority shall fix the time limits for submitting tenders, which shall not be shorter than 14 days from the day of publishing of the notice in \"Informaciniai pranešimai\" (the information supplement to the official gazette \"Valstybës žinios\"). The procurement contracts shall not be subject to other requirements set forth in Chapter IV of this Law.
\n
Article 86Simplified Procurement Contracts and Procedures
\n
1.Simplified procurement shall be conducted by means of the following procedures:
\n
1)simplified open procedure;
\n
2)simplified restricted procedure;
\n
3)simplified negotiated procedure with publication of a contract notice;
\n
4)simplified negotiated procedure without publication of a contract notice;
\n
5)usual commercial practice.
\n
2.Under the conditions specified in a 116 of the Law the contracting authority may resort to simplified procurement procedure –conduct the simplified design contest.
\n
3.The contracting authority may conduct simplified procurement when applying the dynamic purchasing system or electronic auction as referred to in Article 64 and 65 of this Law as well as conclude the framework agreement as specified in Article 63 of this Law or apply the competitive dialogues as indicated in Sector Four of Chapter II of this Law.
\n
4.A public contract may be awarded by the means of a simplified open or simplified restricted procedure in any case.
\n
5.A public contract may be awarded by simplified negotiated procedure with publication of a contract notice where any of the following conditions is present:
\n
1)where the nature and complexity of the procurement object does not allow the contracting authority to described it in a clear and unambiguous manner (i.e., where the contracting authority can specify only the needs to be met by the procurement object, or there is more than one solution to the problems causing the need for supplies, services or works) and resort to the open or restricted procedures;
\n
2)where the procurement procedure failed as no tenders or no suitable tenders or no requests to participate were received in response to the open or restricted procedure, provided the initial conditions of contract are not substantially altered.
\n
6.A public contract may be awarded by means of a simplified open or simplified restricted procedure without publication of a contract notice, provided at least one of the conditions referred to in paragraphs 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 below is present.
\n
7.In case of public supplies, services or works contracts, the simplified negotiated procedure without publication of a contract notice may be used:
\n
1)where the procurement procedure failed, since no tenders or no requests to participate have been submitted in response to an open or restricted procedure;
\n
2)where in a simplified open or simplified restricted procedure the tenders submitted are very different, or where tenders submitted are not acceptable for the contracting authority, provided the initial conditions of contract are not substantially altered and all tenderers who meet the minimum qualification requirements set by the contracting authority are invited to the simplified negotiated procedure without publication of a contract notice;
\n
3)when, for technical or artistic reasons, or for reasons connected with the protection of exclusive rights, the contract may be awarded only to a particular economic entity, and there is no other alternative;
\n
4)insofar as is strictly necessary when, for reasons of extreme urgency brought about by events unforeseeable by the contracting authority in question, the time limit for the simplified open, restricted or negotiated procedures with publication of a contract notice cannot be complied with, and there is no other alternative. The circumstances invoked to justify extreme urgency must not in any event be attributable to the contracting authority;
\n
8.Supplies or services contracts may be awarded by simplified negotiated procedure without publication of a contract notice:
\n
1)where the contracting authority had previous contracts with the same supplier of goods or services and determined, that, from the technical compatibility point of view, it is reasonable to procure the additional supplies or services from the same supplier, provided that such earlier contracts were efficient, that the price and other contract conditions are not substantially altered, and that changing the supplier would result in technical incompatibility, where the new suppliers or services could not be operated together with the previously procured supplies or services, and contracting authority could incur considerable losses. If the price of such additional public supplies or services contracts exceeds 30% of the price in the previous contract, an expert assessment of the technical compatibility of the additionally procured goods or services shall be carries out;
\n
2)where the goods or services are procured abroad for diplomatic representation offices, military envoys and special attachés.
\n
9.In case of the public supply contracts, the simplified negotiated procedure without publication of a contract notice may be used:
\n
1)when the products involved are manufactured purely for the purpose of research, experiment, study or development, not seeking profit or recovery of research and development costs;
\n
2)for supplies quoted and purchased on a commodity market;
\n
3)when the object of the procurement is museum exhibits, archive or library documents, subscribed papers and magazines;
\n
4)for the purchase of supplies on particularly advantageous terms, from either a supplier who is ceasing to trade on a permanent basis or receivers or liquidates involved in insolvency proceedings;
\n
5)when purchases are made from the State Reserve.
\n
10.The simplified negotiated procedure without publication of a contract notice may be used to award public services contracts, if:
\n
1)the public service contract is awarded following the design contest to the successful candidate or to one of the successful candidates; in the latter case, all successful candidates must be invited to participate in the negotiations;
\n
2)the subject of the contract is a licence to use library documents or data (information) bases;
\n
3)the subject of procurement is air transport services.
\n
11.The simplified negotiated procedure without publication of a contract notice may be used to procure services and works, where:
\n
1)for additional services or works not included in the project initially considered or in the original contract but which have, through unforeseen circumstances, become necessary for the performance of the services or works described therein, on condition that the award is made to the same supplier performing such services or works under the original contract, and the aggregate value of contracts awarded for additional services or works does not exceed 15% of the amount of the original contract;
\n
2)for new deliveries of services or works by the existing supplier, which are the same as procured under the previous contracts, on the condition that the previous contract was awarded by means of the open or restricted procedure, the contract notice whereof provided for the possibility of such additional contracts and included their value, and are intended for the execution of the same project. The length of such additional contracts may not exceed three years after the first additional contract is concluded.
\n
12.Contracting authorities may resort to the simplified design contest when they are purchasing area planning, architecture, and engineering or data processing, artistically or culturally complex or similar services.
\n
13.The usual commercial procedure may be used to award a public contract under any of the following conditions:
\n
1)the contract value net of VAT is below LTL 75 thousand for supplies and services, or less than LTL 300 thousand for works;
\n
2)where it is not possible to use any other type of simplified procedures without violating the rules thereof due to the extraordinary circumstances, such as accidents, natural disaster, epidemics or similar force major circumstances;
\n
3)where contracts are warded for training services for the contracting authority's judges, professional military servicemen, civil servants and/or staff employed under the employment contract;
\n
4)goods and services are procured with the funds allocated for representation expenses;
\n
5)the supplies, works and services of the same type are procured by awarding several contracts at the same time in the form of separate lots, if the total value of the lots, net of VAT, is up to 10% of the total value of all contracts for similar supplies or services and 1.5% for work;
\n
6)purchased services of the authors of literary and artistic property, the performers or their groups.
\n
Article 87
\n
Simplified Procurement from Social Undertakings, Undertaking in which 50 % of the Employees are Inmates of Penitentiary Institutions or the Handicapped, or Undertakings of Health Care Institutions, if at least 50% of the Employees are Occupational Therapy Patients Procurement simplified in the manner specified in subparagraphs 4 and 5 of paragraph 1 of Article 86 of this Law may be conducted where contracts are awarded to social undertakings in which over 50% of the employees are inmates serving the penalties of arrest, term deprivation of freedom or life sentence, undertakings in which over 50% of the employees are handicapped and whose activities have not been included in the list of supportable activities, and undertakings in which at least 50% of the employees are occupational therapy patients and the contracting authority awards contracts for the procurement of supplies manufactured, services provided or works performed by them. The list of non-supportable activities performed by undertakings where over 50% of the employees are handicapped shall be approved by the Government of the Republic of Lithuania or an institution authorised by it.
\n
The contracting authority, save for the diplomatic missions, consular posts of the Republic of Lithuania abroad and representations of the Republic of Lithuania in international organizations, when awarding contracts by using simplified procedure in the manner specified in subparagraphs 4 and 5 of paragraph 1 of Article 86 of this Law to be performed with state and municipal budget funds shall allocate at least 10% of all the funds earmarked in the budget programme estimate for buying supplies and services as well as material property to procuring supplies manufactured, services provided or works performed by the institutions and undertakings referred to in this paragraph except in cases where the institutions or undertakings do not manufacture the required supplies nor provide the necessary services or works.
\n
The institutions and undertakings specified in this paragraph shall produce and approve the lists of supplies manufactured, services provided or works performed and every year by 1 October publish them in the “Informaciniai pranešimai” supplement to the official gazette “Valstybės žinios”.
\n
Article 88Principles and Confidentiality in Simplified Procurement Procedures
\n
When awarding public contracts by means of simplified procurement procedures, the contracting authorities shall respect the principles and confidentiality requirements referred to in Articles 3 and 6 of this Law.
\n
Article 89Advertising Rules in Simplified Procurement Procedures
\n
1.The contracting authority shall also advertise each individual contract awarded by using the simplified open procedure, the simplified restricted procedure, the simplified negotiated procedures with publication of a contract notice or the simplified design contest. After the award of the contract or upon signing the framework agreement for services listed in this Law, Annex II B, when the value of such contract exceeds the thresholds specified in subparagraph 4 of paragraph 1 of Article 11 of this Law, the contracting authority shall indicate in the notice sent to the Public Procurement Office whether they agree to its publication.
\n
2.Contracting authorities shall publish the relevant notices in the “Informaciniai pranešimai” supplement to the official gazette “Valstybės žinios”, and in the Central Portal of Public Procurement. In addition, the notices may be published on the Internet website of the contracting authority and in other publications as well as elsewhere on the Internet.
\n
3.The contracting authorities shall deliver the notices intended for publication in the “Informaciniai pranešimai” supplement to the official gazette “Valstybės žinios” and in the Central Portal of Public Procurement to the Public Procurement Office, which shall publish them according to the procedure prescribed by this Law. A notice may not appear in the Central Portal of Public Procurement, the Internet website of the contracting authority or any other publication before it is published in the “Informaciniai pranešimai” supplement to the official gazette “Valstybės žinios.” The content of the same notice shall be identical everywhere.
\n
4.The Public Procurement Office shall set forth the requirements for prior information notices.
\n
Article 90Simplified Procurement Commission
\n
A public procurement commission shall be formed to conduct the simplified procedures. Formation, activity and responsibility of such commission are established in Article 16.
\n
Article 91Simplified Public Contract Technical Specification
\n
Unless provided otherwise under this Chapter, the requirements to technical specifications in simplified procedures are set forth in Article 25 of this Law.
\n
Article 92Providing with Simplified Public Contract Documents
\n
1.Contract documents shall be provided to the suppliers from the date on which invitation to tender was published or dispatched to the suppliers until the final date for the receipt of tenders fixed in the contract documents. Contract documents shall be provided to any supplier who filed a request to participate or any candidate who is invited within 3 working days after the receipt of their request.
\n
2.Contract documents, including invitations to tender, notices, explanations, additional or other documents shall be delivered to the suppliers in person, sent by registered mail, or by registered mail and by fax. Where contracting documents are sent by mail, the date of submission shall be the date of dispatch.
\n
3.Contracting authorities may choose to place the contract documents on a website, too. In such event the website address must be specified in the contract notice. Contract documents may not be placed on the website before the contract notice is published in the information supplement to the official gazette “Valstybės žinios”. If a contracting authority chooses to place the contract documents on the website, it shall forward the printed copies of the documents to any supplier who requests so.
\n
4.The contracting authority may charge all suppliers a single rate fee for the contract documents, which shall consist of the actual costs of copying and sending of the documents to the suppliers. An additional fee may be charged for translation of documents into a foreign language; this fee shall consist of the translation costs.
\n
Article 93Clarification of Simplified Public Contract Documents
\n
1.Candidates may request a clarification of the contract documents from the contracting authority. The contracting authority shall respond to any written request by a candidate for clarification of the contract documents provided it is received not later than 6 working days before the final date fixed for the receipt of tenders. The contracting authority must respond to the request not later than within 3 days from the date of receipt of the request. When responding to a candidate, the contracting authority shall simultaneously send explanations to all candidates to whom it has presented contract documents, without identifying the source of the request. The response should be communicated to the candidates so that they receive it not later than 3 days before the final date fixed for the receipt of tenders.
\n
2.At any time prior to the deadline for receipt of tenders, the contracting authority may explain the contract documents on its own initiative. The clarification, however, may not have an effect of changing the information advertised, and must be communicated to all candidates to which the contracting authority has provided the contract documents not later than 3 days before the final date fixed for the receipt of tenders.
\n
3.If the contracting authority convenes a meeting of candidates, it must prepare minutes of the meeting containing the requests submitted at the meeting for clarification of the contract documents, and its responses to those requests. Minutes must be dispatched to all candidates taking part in the procurement procedures so that they receive it not later than 3 days before the final date fixed for the receipt of tenders; the contracting authority shall notify thereof when clarifying the notice.
\n
4.If the contracting authority can not provide clarification of the contract documents or dispatch such clarifications or minutes of the meeting of candidates so that they are received not later than 3 days before the final date fixed for the receipt of tenders, it must postpone the time limit fixed for the receipt of tenders for a reasonable period enabling the candidates to take the clarification or minutes of the meetings into account in preparing their tenders.
\n
5.Notices of the postponement of the final date fixed for the receipt of tenders must be dispatched to all candidates to whom the contract documents have been presented.
\n
Article 94Qualification of Candidates for Low Value Contracts
\n
Contracting authority must verify whether the candidates in the simplified procedure for the award of a public contract is capable of fulfilling the contract. The verification procedure to be followed is described in Articles 32 to 38 of this Law.
\n
Article 95Validity of Tenders in Simplified Procurement Procedures
\n
1.Contracting authority shall specify the requested period of validity in the contract documents. Such period may not exceed 90 days from the final date set for receipt of tenders. In the event the procurement procedure is suspended, the period of validity shall be extended for the period of extension.
\n
2.In the contract documents, contracting authorities shall request the suppliers to specify the period of validity in their tenders, which may not be shorter than requested by the contracting authority. Where the period of validity is not specified in the tender, it shall be deemed to be valid for the time period fixed in the contract documents.