Awarding the contract
The procuring organisation makes a decision about the company or companies with which the organisation will sign a contract or enter into a framework agreement. Subsequently, all tenderers shall receive notice about the award. Even if the procuring organisation decides to cancel a procurement, all tenderers must be informed.
Content
The information on this page concerns procurements in accordance with:
- the Public Procurement Act (LOU)
- the Act on Procurement in the Water, Energy, Transport and Postal Services Sectors (LUF).
Contents of the award decision
The procuring organisation shall send a notice about the award, including:
- who or which suppliers were awarded the contract or framework agreement and the reasons for the decision
- the period of time during which no agreements may be entered into, called standstill period.
The reason for including this information is that if any supplier believes the decision is incorrect, they have an opportunity for legal recourse by applying for a review of the procurement.
In the event of a direct award, renewed opening for competition under a framework agreement, dynamic purchasing systems, or procurement with no preceding advertising, no standstill period is required.
Additional information upon request
If you have submitted a tender application or a tender, and not been awarded a contract, you can request additional information from the procuring organisation. You can request information about why your application was denied or your tender rejected. If you submitted an acceptable tender, you can also request information about the relative advantages of the winning tender, the names of the companies awarded contracts and information about any negotiations or dialogue.
Normally, this information is clear from the award notice.
Lifting procurement confidentiality
As a rule, when the award decision has been made, all documents in the procurement, such as tenders, records and award decisions pertaining to the procurement, will be made public. The same applies if the procurement is cancelled. Only in certain situations, outlined in the Public Access to Information and Secrecy Act, is the procuring organisation permitted to keep the information classified.
Standstill period – time to sign the contract
In all procurement procedures, the procurement can be reviewed by the administrative court. An application for review of the procurement can be submitted to the administrative court up until the standstill period expires. If no standstill period is in effect, a supplier can apply for review of the procurement up until a contract has been signed.
The standstill period is in effect for no less than 10 days from the date the procuring organisation sent out the award notice. If the award notice was sent out in a different way than electronically, the standstill period shall be 15 days.
The procuring organisation may apply a longer standstill period, but never less than 10 or 15 days from the date the award notice was sent.