Other economic or financial requirements

CA must be able to define what are the other economic or financial requirements.

CA must be able to define minimum requirements (in currency, ratio or other) for the other requirements.

Qualification criteria for EO and subcontractors are usualy diferrent. How it will be adressed in ESPD?

If CA decides to use this option other options on the same page should not be shown to CA. I would personally prefer this option not to be in ESPD at all. It would be better if all selection criteria used would be inputted by CA to ESPD and not to various places in the tender documents. This compicates the matter to EO and leads to unneccessary exclusions.

[One additional thing: we have advised the CAs always to ask EO if there is "a wrong" answer in ESPD and not to exclude the EO straight away. Maybe this practice should be used by others, too. At least in the early stages when EOs are not yet familiar with the ESPD.]

Certificates by independent bodies about quality assurance standards

CA must be able to define what are the required quality assurance standards, including accessibility for disabled persons.

For works contracts: technicians or technical bodies to carry out the work

CA must be able to define minimum criteria for technicians or technical bodies

It would be good if the question is shown only if works contracts in question.

Specific yearly turnover

CA must be able to define the minimun requirement. for the turnover.

CA must also be able to define what is means with specific turnover (normally the area of the EOs business the turnover requirement concerns)

CA must be able to define from which years EO must fill in its turnover,

One issue is to :
Change the cardinality of the Requirement Group

Specific average turnover

CAS must be able to define what is the minimum requirement for the average yearly turnover. Also CA must be able to define not just from how many years the average is but also from which years the average will need to be calculated.

CA must be able to define the what is means with specific (i.e. often business area of EO)

Supply chain management

CA must be able to define minimum criteria for supply chain management.

NOTE: it is very unclear what can be required here. The main problem being: which criteria are linked to supplier and which to the goods or services that are purchased. Guidance note would be needed.

Extreme example: when car is the object of procurement can CA require here that the manufacturer of the car is paying living wages or using other sustanable practices throught out its supply chain.

CA must be able to define the purely national exclusion grounds and what CA has defined should be shown to EO for answering yes or no.

For supply contracts: samples, descriptions or photographs without certification of authenticity

CA must be able to define the required samples etc: what samples it requires, how are those going to be used and where & when the samples will need to be delivered.

It would be good if this question is only shown when supply contracts in question.

Educational and professional qualifications

CA must be able to define minimum criteria for educational and professional qualifications.

EO can participate in a tender basically in four roles:

1. As sole tenderer
2. As a member of a group of companies
3. As a subcontractor whose resources the main tenderer uses to fulfil the minimun requirement
4. As a subcontactor whose resources the main tenderer is NOT using to fulfil the mimimun criteria

Even though there is space for the EO to state in which role it takes part in the tender, in practice the answers are varied and it's sometimes impossible to tell what what role each EO takes part in tender.

Could there be a ready made alternatives? The four above mentioned and a fifth one: "other... please specify".

Average yearly turnover

CAS must be able to define what is the minimum requirement for the average yearly turnover. Also CA must be able to define not just from how many years the average is but also from which years the average will need to be calculated.

This is not really an issue, but a rather a question/remark on the link between ESPD and e-Certis.
In the current ESPD-tool, information about the criteria that is available in e-Certis is displayed. The information displayed depends on the country one selected when starting the tool.
My question: if a CA opens the ESPD response of a foreign company, will the information that comes from e-Certis be based on the country of the CA, or on the country of the EO?
It could be handy for the CA if he could see, in the response of the foreign EO, the e-Certis data that applies to the EO country. This way he could already see what certificates to expect.
This is certainly useful as not every country has certificates available online for all exclusion or selection criteria, or if they have, they might not be accessible for foreign CA. Inserting a link in the ESPD is then rather useless, while e-Certis could provide interesting information of the type of evidence that exists in the EO's country.

The type of activity should be required in the criterion to specify for which activities the company (the EO) is classified. This is the practice in Belgium, Portugal, Spain, and possibly other countries (Austria?) and for which amounts (no limit, up to 5M€,etc.).

--> This doesn’t impact on the schema, but on new XML group of requirements structure. Its about coding the activities and specifying amounts. Codes would be provided by the classifying organisation, and amounts possibly too.

I put this here as I do not know where to put ERRORS in the current version of ESPD.

Section IV B: Economic and Financial Standing

If CA asks average turnover or specific average turnover, the EO must answer with one number. Not give numbers for several years. This is correct in paper ESPD but not in the electronic version.

EOs do not understand what happens if they answer YES or NO to questions. There would need to be a tool tip or something similar warning "you will be excluded" or "you may be excluded if you answer this way".

Average annual manpower

"The economic operator's average annual manpower and the number of managerial staff for the last three years were as follows:"

CA must be able to define minimum criteria.
CA must be able to define the years (preferably the system would generate last 3 years automatically)

NOTE: there are two separate questions here: average annual manpower AND number of managerial stuff - latter being asked already in the previous ESPD question.

Certificates by independent bodies about environmental management systems or standards

CA must be able to define what are the required environmental management systems or standards.

For works contracts: performance of works of the specified type

CA must be able to define the specified type

CA must be able to define minimum requirements for the performance of works.

The two questions which are only related to service contracts: could they somehow be show to CA only if the procurement is about services? I do not know but having them on the list may confuse CAs.

For service contracts: performance of services of the specified type

CA must be able to define the specified type

CA must be able to define minimum requirements for the performance of services.

"The undersigned formally declare..."

There is no place, nor need to sign anything. Could the wording be changed?

if the text stays as it is CA needs to insert its name in this section!

Better option:

The economic operator formally declares that the information stated under Parts II - V above is accurate and correct and that it has been set out in full awareness of the consequences of serious misrepresentation.

The exonomic operator formally declare to be able, upon request and without delay, to provide the certificates and other forms of documentary evidence referred to, except where:

a) The contracting authority or contracting entity has the possibility of obtaining the supporting documentation concerned directly by accessing a national database in any Member State that is available free of charge (on condition that the economic operator has provided the necessary information (web address, issuing authority or body, precise reference of the documentation) allowing the contracting authority or contracting entity to do so. Where required, this must be accompanied by the relevant consent to such access), or

b) As of 18 October 2018 at the latest (depending on the national implementation of the second subparagraph of Article 59(5) of Directive 2014/24/EU), the contracting authority or contracting entity already possesses the documentation concerned.

The economic operator formally consent to the contracting authority or contracting entity as set out in Part I, Section A, gaining access to documents supporting the information, which has been provided in this European Single Procurement Document for the purposes of this procurement procedure:"

Alternatively, the text could say I / We.

The ESPD Response XML Instantiation Guide refers to the wrong CodeList for the cbc:Amount. The CountryCodeIdentifier should be replaced by Currency Code list like ISO 4217 3A:2015

CA must be able to write next to the questions under Section A what is the requirement.

E.g

not relevant professional register but CA must be able to define what professional register registration is required. In certain sectors (e.g. healt) there are many that can be required at the same time.

not authorisation or membership of particular organisation but which organisation.

In TED notices there is Section III: Legal, economic and financial and technical information.

This information is actually in ESPD. With self-contained ESPD section III would need be aligned with TED. It is not very useful to fill in the same information twice. This also increases the risk of having discrepancies between TED notices and the information contained in ESPD.

Quality assurance does only have a description, but it could also refer to well identified standards (e.g. (ISO 9000 family, ISO 27000 standards, and also the parts, e.g. ISO 11179:5 for metadata registry, etc.

it affects the XML instantiation "super-model" , doesn’t impact the XSD Schema.

Number of managerial staff

CA must be able to define minimum / maximu, criteria for the staff.

NOTE: how is this related to object of procurement? Need to pay close attention when defining.

Some attributes are set in the pom.xml only, forcing use of Maven to build the documentation as intended. Please move those attributes to index.adoc.

General yearly turnover

CA must be able to define minumun requirement for turnover in determined currency. Also, CA must be able to define´the years from which this turnover is required. EO must not be able to fill in the years on its own.

[there is a problem if EO is allowed to select currency on its own. The problem concerns the exchange rate that CA will use. Maybe the CA would also need to be able to define which exhange rate will be used it if the EO gives its turover in any other currency than what the CA has defined]

Erlend Klakegg Bergheim: Will there be made available XSLT to upgrade old XML files?

Technical facilities and measures for ensuring quality

CA must be able to define minimum criteria for technical facilities and measures

Environmental management measures

CA must be able to define minimum criteria for environmental management measures.

NOTE: it is very unclear what can be required here. The main problem being: which criteria are linked to supplier and which to the goods or services that are purchased. Guidance note would be needed.

For supply contracts: performance of deliveries of the specified type

CA must be able to define the specified type

CA must be able to define minimum requirements for the performance of deliveries

Subcontracting proportion

This is very problematic question. The same is asked already before in PART II. Why not move this question next to the subcontracting questions?

Professional risk indemnity insurance

CA must be able to set the minimum value for the indemnity insurance.

We need to change the cardinality of req inside req-groups from 1...* to 0...* because there are req-groups which have directly other req-groups.
Example would be for "General yearly turnover"
This change will have no effect on existing solutions as it is easing a constraint.

About financial ratios:

There would be the need of modifying the current model 1.0.2 to enhance the current structure for RATIOS. Below some considerations about how to approach according to ES:

every MS and public administration has its own practice; i.e. different schools for the same type of ratio, therefore it is not easy to come up with a clear and objective nomenclature different countries may interpret the same ratio in different ways. However, in the end, the ratio is adimensional, meaning there isn’t any unit measure associated to it. Possible solutions could be:

1. XBRL approach: a ratio is represented as a numerator divided by a denominator in a structured and machine-oriented way. The most complex case could be that the numerator and/or the denominator are the result of a complex addition (or formula);
2. Codified ratios: Use some of the ratios defined by the European Banks (see for instance the BACH system supported by 11 European Central Banks at ). This would take advantage of the support that the main countries already using them could provide. Also, these countries have databases with temporal values, percentiles, etc. The solution would consist in using the exact terminology and values used by these banks. This database is currently managed (kept) by the Bank of France;
3. Self-maintenance of the ratio taxonomy: Alternatively, if any of the two previous options were appropriate, the Contracting Authority would define its own taxonomy with different codes per ratio. In this case the CA could chose the type of ratio applicable to the specific sector the CA is interested in.

Amongst the three options the second one is probably the simplest as it would take advantage of a well-proven (and free) system managed by trusted European institutions with a large experience in financial subjects.

As pointed above, the ratios are adimensionals, as they are the quocient between two amounts expressed in one single unit (the currency), but must be referred to a well defined temporal context (a period, with a start and end dates; or a specific point in time, e.g. a date). In general the temporal context will be a specific date, although for some ratios both the numerator and the denominator are "varying flows" (e.g. "profit margin"), in which case the temporal context is the period (generally an annual period, not necesarily the "natural" year) through which numerator and denominator have been measured ("net income" and "sales", for example).

From the technical perspective, none of the above cases would impact on the the XSD Schema; the impacts would be on (i) the XML instantiation; the GUIs, (ii) the business rules currently expressed in Schematron.

Proposed milestone: v1.1.0

The figure below would illustrate a data-structure that would cover any of these possibilities. Ideally if the RatioType code is used the Numerator and Denominator values should not be used (and vice-versa). This would be controlled via Schematron. However one could also consider that Numerator, Denominator and RatioType could simultaneously be specified; the con: possible inconsistencies wouldn't be so easy to validate. Let's recall you that if the RatioType is used, the code issuer agency should be specified (compulsorily) amongst the code attributes (so to identify XBRL, European Banks, the CA, other).

This proposal will have to be readjusted to match the final decisions on the above three possibilities.

Technicians or technical bodies for quality control

CA must be able to determine minimum criteria for technicians and technical bodies

About the Turnovers two change-requests have been issued by a Member State:

1. "General" Turnovers, like in IV.B.1.a) or IV.B.1.b), the turnovers structure (i) should cater for multiple and unlimited (dynamic) cardinality; and (ii) should allow the specification of either a period of time (reference to a temporal flow, e.g. financial year/period) or to specific date of stock;
2. "Specific" Turnovers, like in IV.B.2.a) or IV.B.2.b) should (i) cater for multiple and unlimited (dynamic) cardinality; and (ii) should allow the specification of the scope of the contract (i.e. the business area covered by the contract).

As you can see in the image below, the current version 1.0.2 does not provide placeholders for these data:

1. To attend change requests nbr. 1 there is not need of changing the XSD Schema, but a new "data structure" (i.e. organisation of requirement groups and requirements in the XML instance) needs to be provided. The diagram below would illustrate how this data structure would look like according to the method used in the document "ESPD Exchange Data Model (ESPD-EDM). ESPD Response XML Instantiation Guide, v.1.0.2":

1. Again, to attend change request nbr. 2 there is no need of changing the XSD Schema, but to specify a new data structure like the one below. In this case the proposal to specify the business area covered by the contract is to use one or possibly several CPV codes, as a combination of CPVs can help to better restrict the scope of the contract:

Allowance of checks

CA cannot require full check of everything (the text implies that CA would require all kinds of checks and audits).

CA must set a limit / set maximum for cheks and audits.

For supply contracts: certificates by quality control institutes

CA must be able to define what is required

Financial ratio

CA must be able to define the ratio and the minimun requirement for the ratio.

CA must be able to ask for several ratios and set miminum reqquirements to each

Procurement procedure can be divided into Lots, every Lot can have different requirements for EO qualification.

Study and research facilities

CA must be able to define minimum criteria for study and research facilities

NOTE: there are some translation issues in some languages with the word "facilities"

For some selection criteria it is important that the public buyer can define how the criterion is weighted. We need define what are the attributes to achieve this.

Tools, plant or technical equipment

CA must be able to define minimum criteria

For supply contracts: samples, descriptions or photographs with certification of authenticity

CA must be able to define the required samples etc: what samples it requires, how are those going to be used and where & when the samples will need to be delivered.

It would be good if this question is only shown when supply contracts in question.

The codelist for element cbc:CustomizationID contains wrong values from CEN BII.

Example:
The ESPD response message should have customizationID
urn:www.cenbii.eu:transaction:biitrdm092:ver3.0

Whereas the codelist (gz and pdf) shows the value
urn:www.cenbii.eu:transaction:biitrns090:ver3.