Common use of Information on Intended Procurement Clause in Contracts

Information on Intended Procurement. Tender Documentation 1. A procuring entity shall promptly provide, upon request, to any supplier interested in participating in a procurement tender documentation that includes all information necessary to permit suppliers to prepare and submit responsive tenders. 2. Unless already provided in the notice of intended procurement, such documentation shall include a complete description of: (a) the procurement, including the nature and the quantity of the goods or services to be procured or, where the quantity is not known, the estimated quantity and any requirements to be fulfilled, including any technical specifications, conformity assessment certification, plans, drawings, or instructional materials; (b) any conditions for participation of suppliers, including any financial guarantees, information, and documents that suppliers are required to submit; (c) all evaluation criteria to be considered in the awarding of the contract, and, except where price is the sole criterion, the relative importance of such criteria; (d) where the procuring entity will hold an electronic auction, the rules, including identification of the elements of the tender related to the evaluation criteria, on which the auction will be conducted; (e) where there will be a public opening of tenders, the date, time, and place for the opening of tenders and, where appropriate, the persons authorized to be present; (f) any other terms or conditions, including terms of payment and any limitation on the means by which tenders may be submitted, such as whether on paper or by electronic means; and (g) any dates for the delivery of goods or the supply of services. 3. A procuring entity shall promptly reply to any reasonable request for relevant information by any interested or participating supplier, provided that such information does not give that supplier an advantage over other suppliers. 4. If, in tendering procedures, a procuring entity allows tenders to be submitted in several languages, one of those languages shall be English. 14-9 Technical Specifications 5. A procuring entity shall not prepare, adopt, or apply any technical specification or prescribe any conformity assessment procedure with the purpose or the effect of creating unnecessary obstacles to trade between the Parties. 6. In prescribing the technical specifications for the goods or services being procured, a procuring entity shall, where appropriate: (a) specify the technical specification in terms of performance and functional requirements, rather than design or descriptive characteristics; and (b) base the technical specification on international standards, where such exist and are applicable to the procuring entity, except where the use of an international standard would fail to meet the entity's program requirements or would impose a greater burden than the use of a recognized national standard. 7. Where design or descriptive characteristics are used in the technical specifications, a procuring entity shall indicate, where appropriate, that it will consider tenders of equivalent goods or services that demonstrably fulfill the requirements of the procurement by including words such as "or equivalent" in the tender documentation. 8. A procuring entity shall not prescribe technical specifications that require or refer to a particular trademark or trade name, patent, copyright, design, type, specific origin, producer, or supplier, unless there is no other sufficiently precise or intelligible way of describing the procurement requirements and provided that, in such cases, the entity includes words such as "or equivalent" in the tender documentation. 9. A procuring entity shall not seek or accept, in a manner that would have the effect of precluding competition, advice that may be used in the preparation or adoption of any technical specification for a specific procurement from a person that may have a commercial interest in the procurement.