S.L. 601.3 Art. 154

(1)The negotiated procedure without prior publication may be used for public service contracts in the following instances:

(a) where no tenders or no suitable tenders or no requests to participate or no suitable requests to participate have been submitted in response to an open procedure or a restricted procedure, provided that the initial conditions of the contract are not substantially altered and that a report is sent to the Commission where it so requests; or

(b) where the services can be supplied only by a particular economic operator for any of the following reasons:

(i) the aim of the procurement is the creation or acquisition of a unique work of art or artistic performance;

(ii) competition is absent for technical reasons;

(iii) the protection of exclusive rights, including intellectual property rights:

Provided that the exceptions set out in sub-paragraphs (ii) and (iii) shall only apply when no reasonable alternative or substitute exists and the absence of competition is not the result of an artificial narrowing down of the parameters of the procurement; or

(c) where in so far as is strictly necessary, for reasons of extreme urgency brought about by events unforeseeable by the contracting authority, the time limits for the open or restricted procedures or competitive procedures with negotiation cannot be complied with. The circumstances invoked to justify extreme urgency shall not in any event be attributable to the contracting authority; or

(d) or new services consisting in the repetition of similar services entrusted to the economic operator to which the same contracting authorities awarded an original contract, provided that such works are in conformity with a basic project for which the original contract was awarded pursuant to a procedure for which a call for competition has been published in accordance with these regulations; or

(e) for public service contracts, where the contract concerned follows a design contest organised in accordance with these regulations and is to be awarded, under the rules provided for in the design contest, to the winner or one of the winners of the design contest; in the latter case, all winners must be invited to participate in the negotiations; or

(f) for the purchase of services on particularly advantageous terms, from either a supplier which is definitively winding up its business activities, or the liquidator in an insolvency procedure, an arrangement with creditors, or a similar procedure under national laws or regulations.

(2) (a) If the negotiated procedure is used to carry out repetition of similar services, the basic project shall indicate the extent of possible additional services and the conditions under which they will be awarded.

(b) As soon as the first project is put up for tender, the possible use of this procedure shall be disclosed and the total estimated cost of subsequent services shall be taken into consideration by the contracting authorities when they apply the thresholds established under Schedule 5.

(c) The negotiated procedure for repetition of similar services may be resorted to only during the three years following the conclusion of the original contract.