S.L. 601.3 Art. 15Cancellation of a procurement procedure.

(1) The Director has the right to cancel the award of a contract at any time during a call for tenders or quotations even after the recommended bidder has been decreed and the time establish to file and appeal before the Public Contracts Review

Board has lapsed, if it is found that such a contract has been awarded either in breach of these regulations or the award has been made in such a way as to discriminate between economic operators.

(2) (a) The Director may decide to cancel any procurement procedure even if an evaluation process has not been concluded by the end of the validity period of the submitted bids.

(b) If the Director decides to cancel the tender he shall consult the General Contracts Committee or the Special Contracts Committee as the case may be for its opinion.

(c) Should the General Contracts Committee or the Special Contracts Committee, as the case may be, not agree with the recommendation of the Director, the decision of the Director may be referred to the Minister for his approval.

(d) In the case of call for tenders administered by the Sectoral Procurement Directorate, the Director Sectoral Procurement, shall have the right to exercise the same rights of the Director, as established under this sub-regulation, with the exception that instead of consulting with the General Contracts Committee or the Special Contracts Committee he shall consult with the Departmental Contracts Committee responsible for the contracting authority on whose behalf the Sectoral Procurement Directorate is administering the call.

(e) If the Departmental Contracts Committee does not agree with the recommendations of the Sectoral Procurement Directorate, the decision of the latter can be referred to the Minister responsible for that Departmental Contracts Committee so that he can give a final decision.

(3) The decision leading to the cancellation of a procurement procedure has to be made in writing and must include the findings and the reasoning that led to this decision.

(4) A copy of this decision must be notified to each economic operator who participated in that particular call, who will have the right to contest it by filing a complaint before the Review Board. The same procedure mentioned in regulation 276 mutatis mutadis applies also for this procedure.

(5) The decision of the review board can be appealed before the Court of Appeal as provided in these regulations.

The Contracting Authority