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are available on the project website: www.procurementsupport.com.
The EU Commission is associated with the network
co-operation as explained in chapter 2, section
IV.
II. Introduction of cross-border problemsolving
A concrete cross-border public procurement case
would, typically, be a situation where a supplier
faces a problem with a procurement procedure in
another Member State, and addresses himself to
the public procurement contact point in his own
country.
When the contact point of the supplier's country
receives the complaint from the supplier, it starts a
preliminary investigation in order to make sure
that the problem in question concerns a violation
of the public procurement rules that can be
ascribed to the contracting authority concerned.
Having examined the problem as far as possible as
it is presented by the supplier, the contact point of
the supplier's country approaches the contact
point of the contracting authority's country
requesting co-operation and initiation of a problem-solving
process.
The basic and essential element of the problemsolving
process is that the national (contact point)
authority of the contracting authority's country
should exercise persuasive influence on the contracting
authority/entity in question in order to
draw its attention to the problem and induce it to
adjust its procurement behaviour in a more competitive
way, if appropriate.
A precondition for success this way with a problem-solving
facility is first of all mutual trust
between the participating national authorities. The
Pilot Project on Public Procurement constitutes an
example of such network co-operation.
III. Pre-contract problem solving
The idea of pre-contract problem solving 1 is of
essential importance in cross-border cases. The
term "pre-contract problem-solving" refers to
action taken in the course of a public contract
award procedure with a view to ensuring equal and
fair competition regarding the contract in question,
in due time. In other words, it is action taken
before the contract has been awarded and possibly
signed, in contrast to the notion of "post-contract",
which relates to events after the award/signature of
the contract when any reactions are normally very
limited.
Problem solving by exercising persuasive influence
on the contracting authority/entity before the procurement
procedure is terminated by the award of
the contract may lead to the result that the complaining
supplier will meet fair competition during
the procurement procedure in progress and get
1. Cf. Report concerning the Study on Pre-Contract Problem-Solving Systems
6