Doing Business in the Netherlands 2012 - American Chamber of ...

Doing Business in the Netherlands 2012
of contract with one or more of them. Finally, the EC Directives also
introduced the competitive dialogue procedure, which is copied in the
Dutch legal system.
10.3.4 Selection Criteria
Qualitative selection criteria relate to the tenderer rather than to the
contract. Criteria for qualitative selection relate to the company’s
financial and economic standing on the one hand, and to the tenderer’s
technical knowledge or ability on the other hand.
10.3.5 Award Criteria
Public contracts can be awarded either to the tender with the lowest
price or to the tender that is economically most advantageous. When
the contract is awarded to the economically most advantageous tender,
various criteria, including price, running costs and technical merit can
be taken into account.
10.3.6 Advertising
Advertising rules oblige contracting authorities to send notices to the
Office for Official Publications of the EC in Luxembourg. The
content of notices may differ and there are various publication
requirements. Notices can or must take the form of indicative notices
(when the budgetary year begins), calls for tenders, design contest
notices, notices on the existence of a qualification system, or notices
on the contracts awarded.
Voluntary use of advertising possibilities for contracts, which fall
outside the scope of the Framework Procurement Act, is allowed. On
a regular basis, notices are also published in the Official Gazette
(Staatscourant) and Cobouw, a newspaper for the construction
industry. The Dutch government promotes electronic procurement
(for instance, through the Internet).
Finally, Dutch and EC case laws require compliance with the general
principles of procurement law and proper government. This entails,
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