Public Procurement in Sweden – introduction and tips to
Lithuanian tenderers
Natalie Svensson, Partner at Magnusson Malmö, Sweden
Berlin
Copenhagen
18.10.2011
November 2013
Gothenburg
Helsinki
Kaunas
Kiev
Malmö
Minsk
Moscow
Oslo
Riga
Stockholm
Tallinn
Vilnius
Warsaw
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Public Procurement in Sweden
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Public procurement in Sweden amounts to approximately 90 000
MEuro/year
•
Public procurement in the EU amounts to approximately 1 000 000
MEuro/year
•
Knowledge about public procurement generates competion advantages
and money
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November 2013
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Short introduction
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Public procurement is governed by the Swedish Public Procurement Act
(2007:1091 – LOU), which is largely based on the EU Directive 2004/18/EC
concerning public procurement
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By complying with the Swedish procurement provisions, contracting
authorities meet the obligations prescribed by EU law
•
A separate law with slightly more flexible rules applies to procurement
within the utilities sectors – Act on Procurement within the Water, Energy,
Transport and Postal Services Sectors 2007:1092 – LUF)
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The procurement process can be illustrated as follows:
Planning
Needs analysis
Contract
document
Procurement process
Exclusion of
suppliers
Publication
of contract
notice
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Qualification
of suppliers
Fulfillment of
contract
Award of
contract
(evaluation
of
tenders)
Standstill
Period
Award
decision
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Follow up
Signing of
contract
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Short introduction
Fundamental principles for all public procurements
1. The principle of non-discrimination
2. The principle of equal treatment
3. The principle of transparency
4.The principle of proportionality
5. The principle of mutual recognition
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Generelly about Swedish procurements
Consideration of tenders
The consideration phase involves various steps:
•
checking any grounds for excluding a supplier
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checking the suitability of a supplier (qualification)
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awarding contracts (evaluating tenders)
An application or a tender that is received too late may not be included for
further checks and evaluation, even if it is not the supplier that has caused the
delay.
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Principles for evaluation of a tender
A contracting authority shall state which evaluation principle it is going to use. It
may make a selection by stating that it will either accept
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the tender that is the most economically advantageous for the authority, or
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the tender that has the lowest price
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Foreign tenderers - challenges
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The main rule is that both requests to participate and tenders must be
submitted in writing. Required language – Swedish
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Swedish contracting authorities generally lacks experience of foreign
tenderers
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Swedish high standards and special requirements (e.g. employment law)
and insurance solutions and other securities such as bank guarantees
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The project management must be fluent in Swedish
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Ability to show non-discrimination and gender equality clauses within a
company
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High work environment standards
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Requirement for environmental management systems
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Tips to overcome the difficulties
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Cooperate with Swedish companies
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Create a cash-flow plan
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Make sure that all the qualifications and requirements of the procurement
are met
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Send the tender on time and in the exact way that is stipulated in the
contract documents (request for proposals) – the tender must correspond
to the contract documents – no more or less information
•
Designate a local partner/consultant to solve the language and national
procurement law boundaries
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Tips to tenderers
Referring to the ability of another party
A candidate or tenderer that cannot personally meet the requirements for
financial, technical and professional ability imposed by the contracting authority
as a requirement can show that it has access to the resources of another
undertaking, thereby achieving the ability in question
Joint tenders
Groups of suppliers are entitled to apply to be allowed to submit a tender and
to submit a tender
Subcontractor
Cooperation with primary bidders
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Tips to tenderers
Information at the request of a supplier
If a candidate or a tenderer requests information about the reasons for the
rejection of its application or the rejection of the tender, the contracting
authority shall provide this information
The contracting authority shall also, at the request of the tenderer that
submitted an acceptable tender, provide information about the formulation of
the tender selected and the relative advantages of this tender as well as the
name of the tenderer that was either awarded the contract or was appointed as
party to a framework agreement
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Final notes
Noticeable is that competing for quality is getting more important
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We recently assisted a French company to win a 500 MSEK contract in a
Swedish municipality. Price was only a minor factor
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We continuously help foreign companies to get in touch with Swedish
companies in the same industry/business
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Nota bene: suppliers may now be excluded from participating in a
procurement if the suppliers have been guilty of professional misconduct
and the contracting authority can prove this
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THANK YOU!
Natalie Svensson, Partner
natalie.svensson@magnussonlaw.com
+ 46 (0) 70 458 65 44
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