Summary: On 15 January 2014, the European Parliament adopted three new Procurement Directives for public contracts, utilities and concessions which aim to reform the public procurement regime. In this blog Eddie Regan, Senior Consultant with DCIтАЩs training partner PASS (Procurement Advice and Support Service), talks about some of the changes coming into place that suppliers to the defence industry should be aware of.
In case you havenтАЩt been paying attention, the European Parliament has finally passed the three new procurement-related Directives.
Albeit around twelve months later than we all anticipated, but better late than never, as they say.
So itтАЩs real now, and for suppliers a lot of learning, in a relatively short timeframe, is going to be necessary.
There will be new and changed procedures, new timescales for pre-qualification and tender exercises, a change to how Prior Information Notices can be used, new selection and exclusion criteria, new award criteriaтАж the list is extensive.
Along the way, some of you will be saying bye-bye to тАШPart B ServicesтАЩ and hello to тАШSocial and Other Specific ServicesтАЩ, and it isnтАЩt a straight swap.
In terms of pricing tenders, one of the new initiatives may see you having to identify costs rather than just price.
If the rumours are true, the expectation is that the Public Procurement Directive will become UK Regulations by the autumn of this year.
Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude has already said тАЬwe will seek to transpose these rules into UK law quicklyтАЭ, while the Cabinet Office have confirmed that they are тАЬpreparing ambitious plans for early transposition, so that the UK can take advantage of the additional flexibilities in the new rules as soon as possibleтАЭ.
So if you havenтАЩt taken this seriously so far, you better start doing so quickly.
PASS (the Procurement Advice and Support Service) тАУ the training partner of DCI тАУ is running training events to help suppliers understand how the new EU Directive will affect them. DCI customers can also save ┬г100 on this one-day, supplier-focused event. Just call your Customer Account Manager on 0141 270 7666 to claim your discount code and take advantage of this special offer.
For more information on the Directives and to find out about events near you, please visit www.passprocurement.com/eu2014