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 DCI’s 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 haven’t 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 it’s 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 criteria… the list is extensive.
Along the way, some of you will be saying bye-bye to ‘Part B Services’ and hello to ‘Social and Other Specific Services’, and it isn’t 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 “we will seek to transpose these rules into UK law quickly”, while the Cabinet Office have confirmed that they are “preparing ambitious plans for early transposition, so that the UK can take advantage of the additional flexibilities in the new rules as soon as possible”.
So if you haven’t taken this seriously so far, you better start doing so quickly.
PASS (the Procurement Advice and Support Service) – the training partner of DCI – is running training events to help suppliers understand how the new EU Directive will affect them. DCI customers can also save £100 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
