S.L. 601.3 Art. 16Duties of a contracting authority.

(1) In so far as this is not inconsistent with the duties established under sub-regulation (2) and regulation 79, it is the duty of all contracting authorities:

(a) to observe and abide to these regulations;

(b) to administer their own procurement when the estimated values of such a procurement falls under the threshold established in regulation 9(1)(a): Provided that for entities listed under Schedule 3 this obligation shall extend also to their procurement which meets or exceeds the threshold established under regulation 9(1)(b);

(c) to draw up procurement documents and all relevant supporting documentation: Provided that when a contracting authority listed under Schedule 2 needs to publish a procurement process with an estimated value which falls under the threshold established under regulation 9(1)(b) the same contracting authority shall forward the procurement document and all relevant supporting documentation to the Director so that they may be vetted, published and administered by the latter;

(d) to ensure that any references to nomenclatures in the context of public procurement shall be made using the Common Procurement Vocabulary;

(e) to publish all calls for tenders and quotations, through government’s e-procurement platform, unless otherwise provided for in these regulations;

(f) to monitor the implementation of the procurement process;

(g) to take appropriate measures to effectively prevent, identify and remedy conflicts of interest arising in the conduct of procurement procedures so as to avoid any distortion of competition and to ensure equal treatment of all economic operators;

(h) to indicate in their procurement documents that the award of the contract is subject to the review procedure as set forth in these regulations and to include an extract of the relevant part of the appeals process in the said documents for the guidance of economic operators;

(i) to administer and implement all contracts awarded after the procurement and to defend in front of a board or tribunal any dispute that might arise in the execution of the contract;

(j) to effect all payments resulting from the execution of the contract;

(k) to take appropriate measures to ensure that during the execution of a contract, economic operators comply with the applicable obligations in the fields of environmental, social and labour law established by Union law, national law, collective agreements or by the international environmental, social and labour law provisions listed in Schedule 13;

(l) to forward a copy of the contracts identified in regulation 12(1)(f) to the Director when the latter so requests; and

(m) to institute and to defend any judicial or arbitral proceedings in relation to any contract signed by them or on their behalf.

(2) (a) The contracting authorities listed under Schedule 16 have the duty to prepare the procurement documents and all relevant supporting documentation and forward these to the Sectoral Procurement Directorate when the call is going to be published under the open procedure and the estimated value of this call exceeds ten thousand euro (€10,000) but does not exceed seven hundred and fifty thousand euro (€750,000). When the estimated value but does not exceed seven hundred and fifty thousand euro (€750,000) these documents have to be forwarded to the Director so that he carries out his functions according to regulations 12 and 13.

(b) Contracting authorities that are listed under Schedule 16 also have the duty to open in public offers submitted by economic operators for quotations which have an estimated value exceeding five thousand euro (€5000) but not exceeding ten thousand euro (€10,000).