Publish Date : 25-Apr-2018
There was widespread consensus today in the National Council for the Reform of the Public Procurement Law. In addition to the coalition parties, the SP and NEOS also voted in favor of the government's extensive legislative package . The aim of the package is to modernize and simplify procurement procedures, to strengthen the best bidder principle, and to implement EU requirements. The decision would make the Austrian public procurement law fit for the 21st century, stressed FP MP Markus Tschank. There was also general praise from the opposition.
That the list mushroom nevertheless against the legal package agreed, founded Alfred J. Noll with the fact that all legal services are excluded from the Federal Procurement Law. In this area, Austria writes against the otherwise repeatedly upheld national autonomy and the principle of subsidiarity, the EU directive "completely uninspired", he criticized. However, that provision was only included in the Directive on the basis of successful lobbying by British and other international law firms.
However, Klaus Frlinger (VP), like Noll, also has no problem with the provision criticized by Noll. The law was neither sloppy nor bad, he reiterated, expressing his appreciation that EU targets would not be exceeded. The procurement law is an incredibly complex matter, underlined Frlinger, on the one hand it needs equal opportunities for companies, on the other hand, but you must also ensure that just small communities do not suffocate in bureaucracy. The package of legislation has been written in accordance with the principles of efficiency, economy and efficiency and also takes account of small and medium-sized enterprises.
Passenger rail services are not covered by public procurement law
On the part of the SP, Peter Wittmann (SP) drew attention to the fact that the government bill essentially corresponds, one to one, to the proposal presented by the SP eight months ago. At that time, the VP had a decision, however, "with some absurd claims" prevented. The law had been one of the subjects on which the VP had failed the old coalition. Now the law would be decided in the original version. "The provisions that services of BB may not be tendered directly, do not come." In general, the law would facilitate procurement procedures, make sub-threshold tenders more flexible and extend the best bidder principle.
The generally positive assessment of the law was also joined by Melanie Erasim (SP). The package will ensure the survival of many Austrian companies, she is convinced. It is important now that the law is filled with life. Especially in bus transport Erasim sees the need to tender according to the best bidder principle to end wage and social dumping. On the subject of rail transport, Erasim noted that the SP did not want large international transport companies to be subsidized with taxpayers' money at the expense of the red-white-red BB.
Regrets that the VP has not prevailed in the liberalization of rail services, however, said the NEOS. For Douglas Hoyos-Trauttmansdorff it is not clear that year after year BB order passenger kilometers without tenders. At least in competitive long-distance traffic, it would be important to start competitive bidding as soon as possible and not just in 2023, as demanded by the EU, he said. A motion for a resolution tabled by NEOS aimed to produce a study on the impact of tenders and direct awards in the transport sector, but did not receive a majority vote.
Hoyos' parliamentary group colleague Nikolaus Scherak emphasized that Austria is implementing the pertinent EU procurement directive far too late. He considered the expansion of the best bidder principle to be meaningful, so that the quality of products could be better integrated into the bidding process.
Markus Tschank (FP) was responsible for the delayed adoption of the law by the former Chancellor Christian Kern. The SP had slept, barely were the freedmen in the government, will be implemented, he held regardless of the reference to Wittmann on the original draft. The package will make Austrian procurement law fit for the 21st century.
VP expects better opportunities for local businesses
The aim of the Federal Procurement Law is to ensure fair and transparent awards, said VP member Friedrich Ofenauer. At the same time, he believes it is important for local contracting to be used when contracting municipalities. This would secure jobs in the region. The best bidder principle also prevents wage and social dumping, the public sector has a role model here.
Ofenau's parliamentary group colleagues Nikolaus Berlakovich and Klaus Lindinger paid particular attention to the procurement of food for public canteens, such as barracks, hospitals, retirement homes and kindergartens. Already two years ago, the best bidder principle was introduced for certain products, recalled Berlakovich. However, that was partially offset by particularly low prices from some providers. The new horizontal best bidder principle could already require certain quality conditions in the call for tenders and not just in the evaluation of tenders. It is not the price, but the quality that should decide what ends up on the consumer's plate, affirmed Lindinger.
The procurement regime applies not only to federal, state and local governments, but also to contracting in certain sectors, such as water and energy supplies and parts of public transport. Once thresholds have been reached, an EU-wide call for tenders will be required, with the Constitutional Committee expressly clarifying that service contracts for a specific project, such as a municipality, must be aggregated only in the case of services in the same field. This clarification was expressly welcomed in the meeting of Friedrich Ofenauer and other MEPs (for details on the legislative package see Parliament Correspondence No. 383/2018). The new Federal Procurement Law can only come into force if the countries also agree.
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