Public procurement: Request participation in the competitive dialogue

Contracting authorities (contracting entities) may engage in a competitive dialogue above the EU-wide thresholds. This procedure is a special form of negotiated procedure with aspects of restricted award procedure. It is used to award particularly complex contracts. The contracting entity may conduct the competitive dialogue if:

• the order volume exceeds the specified threshold, and
• it is objectively incapable of:
  • indicate the technical means by which their needs and objectives can be met, or
  • indicate the legal and financial conditions of the project.

As an EU-wide call for tenders, the call for applications for participation in the procedure (participation competition) must be published in the EU Official Journal "S" / TED and, according to Hessian procurement law, in the Hessian tender database HAD; the EU announcement may be made via the HAD. The contract notice shall set out the needs and requirements. Explanatory notes may be provided in the contract notice itself or by means of a retrievable description.
 

To the awarding authority.

You can find out which documents, samples or samples you need during the competitive dialogue from the awarding authority.

The submission of a request to participate in the competitive dialogue must comply with the substantive and formal requirements described in the contract notice.
 

You must submit your application for participation in the competitive dialogue to the awarding authority. As a rule, it must be received 37 days after the notice has been sent.

The contracting authority shall invite the selected undertakings to negotiate the details of the contract. The dialogue can take place in different phases. These are intended to build on each other with the aim of reducing the number of solutions to be discussed in the dialogue phase and making them easier to implement. The contracting entity shall indicate the stages of the dialogue in the contract notice or in the descriptive document. If the contracting authority decides that a company should no longer participate in the next phase of the dialogue, it must inform it.

The competitive dialogue is open-ended. The contracting entity shall declare the dialogue closed if:

• it is evident that no solution can be found, or
• a solution has been found that meets the needs of the contracting authority.

In both cases, the undertakings involved shall be informed of the conclusion of the dialogue. Once a solution has been found, the contracting authority shall invite the undertakings still involved in the dialogue phase to submit a final tender. The basis of the offer is the solution submitted and discussed in the dialogue phase. The contracting authority examines the tenders and selects the most economical tender.

It may ask the selected company to re-explain details of the offer or to confirm commitments of the offer.
 

You must bear the costs of participating in the competitive dialogue and processing the offer. The exception is the request of the contracting authority to participating companies to prepare e.g. drafts, plans, drawings, calculations or other documents. It must then reimburse the costs uniformly and appropriately.