Appeal against the rejection of a tender offer

Today, public procurement plays a significant role in the state, because with their help, it is possible to clearly regulate the needs for which state funds are allocated and whether they are carried out within the framework of current legislation. However, in practice, one of the important issues that participants in public procurements are constantly faced with is the appeal of the rejection of a tender offer, because the normative legal acts of Ukraine give the right to the contracting authority to reject the offers of participants. This shows the relevance of consideration of this topic. Therefore, in this article, we will talk about the features of the mechanism for appealing the rejection of a tender offer.

What are the reasons for rejecting a tender offer?

From the analysis of the provisions of the Law of Ukraine “On Public Procurement”, it can be said that the reasons for rejecting a tender offer are:

If a participant in the public procurement procedure:

• does not meet the qualification criteria defined in the legislation. For example, such criteria are the recognition of a person as bankrupt or as a person who previously committed corruption offenses and was prosecuted for them, etc.;
• indicated in the tender offer information that is unreliable and affects the establishment of the results of the procurement procedure;
• did not provide security for the tender offer;
• did not eliminate discrepancies in the tender offer within 24 hours that were discovered by the public procurement customer;
• did not provide explanations to the customer why the tender offer is too low;
• defined as confidential data those that cannot be defined as such within the framework of the law;

If the tender offer of the participant:

• does not meet the requirements established in the technical specification or the subject of public procurement itself;
• written in a language other than that specified in the tender documentation;
• its validity period has expired;

If the winner of the procurement procedure:

• at the final stage of the public procurement, he refused to sign a contract on performance of works, provision of services or delivery of goods;
• did not provide appropriate licenses or other documentation of a permissive nature for carrying out economic activities;
• in the event of a request from the public procurement customer, he did not ensure the execution of the procurement contract.

Thus, the grounds for rejection of a tender offer can be diverse and all circumstances must be taken into account in order to understand why the customer of public procurement can reject your tender offer.

How to appeal the rejection of a tender offer?

If you believe that your tender offer was illegally rejected by the public procurement customer, then to appeal his decision, you need to contact the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine, which is authorized to consider such complaints. The complaint must be drawn up in accordance with the requirements of current legislation and contain supporting evidence of the fact that the customer has wrongfully rejected the tender offer.

A complaint can be submitted through the tenderer’s personal account on the relevant trading platform within 10 days from the moment when the customer published the decision to reject the tender offer, but until the time when the purchase contract was not yet concluded.

What type of liability is provided for illegal rejection of a tender offer?

The legislation of Ukraine provides for administrative responsibility for the rejection of a tender offer in the form of a fine in the amount of UAH 25,500 to UAH 51,000. (Part 3. Art. 164-14 of the Code of Administrative Offenses).

Do you need to challenge an illegal tender rejection? In such a situation, contact the Prykhodko and Partners law office.

Our lawyers will provide you with legal assistance on all issues that will arise during cooperation, because we perfectly understand problematic issues in the field of public procurement. Get in touch!