prCEN/TS XXX

Electronic Public Procurement - Pre-Award - Part 3-1: Syntax Binding, UBL prCEN/TS XXX

Scope

This document provides specifications on syntax binding of the transaction in the pre-award area to corresponding messages by the Universal Business Language (UBL).

The syntax binding will be described for the transactions of the pre-award procedures (e.g. Open Procedure and Restricted Procedure) which are developed as separate work items. Thus, a set of artifacts will be developed relating to the following processes and transactions.

eAccess: Electronic access to procurement documents and specifications, including electronic access to supporting documents for sellers in the preparation of a Tender response. This includes expressing interest in a business opportunity to be listed in the procurement procedure. The following transactions are of specific relevance for the phase and shall be assessed by the project:
• Subscribe to Procedure
• Subscribe to Procedure Confirmation
• Unsubscribe to Procedure
• Unsubscribe to Procedure Confirmation
• Procedure Status Inquiry
• Call for Tenders
• Invitation to Tender
• Pre-Award Catalogue Request
• Call for Tender Questions
• Call for Tender Answers
eSubmission: the business process and activities related to secure submission of tenders, qualifications and/or catalogues in electronic format to the buyer (contracting authority/contracting entity), which can receive and process it in compliance with applicable legal requirements. The following transactions are of specific relevance for the phase and shall be assessed by the project:
• Tender Submission
• Pre-Award Catalogue Response
• Tender Reception Notification
• Qualification Submission
• Qualification Reception Notification
• Tender/Qualification Withdrawal
• Tender/Qualification Withdrawal Notification

eEvaluation: Evaluation of the electronic tenders, qualifications and/or catalogues received by the buyer following the closing deadline of a qualification process or tender competition, including electronic exchange to enable the clarification of tender and qualification content by evaluations. This includes support for the process to reject a qualification document for a particular reason or that an economic operator has been invited to submit a tender or that a tender has been rejected or awarded to a particular economic operator. The following transactions are of specific relevance for the phase and shall be assessed by the project:
• Tender Clarification Request
• Tender Clarification
• Qualification Rejection

eAwarding: Information exchange regarding the assessment results of submitted documents. The following transactions are of specific relevance for the phase and shall be assessed by the project:
• Awarding Notification

There are transactions of the pre-award which are already covered and well-described by existing initiatives like eForms and ESPD. However, these documents play an important role and have an important impact on the pre-award process. As an example, an eForms contract notice must be published together with the call for tenders and is a means to gain an initial knowledge about a call. Thus, it facilitates the following pre-award processes, namely, to identify the procedure, the contracting authority and its electronic endpoints required to initiate cross platform processes like the subscription to a procedure. Likewise, the ESPD is a means to qualify for a procurement procedure, either as part of the tender submission or as separate qualification process in restricted procedures. Thus, the pre-award standards developed in CEN/TC 440 need to consider adequate linkage and support for these associated processes and standards that have been established by the European Commission. Thereby, the project is not aiming to modify them but to leverage their capabilities for pre-award procurement and facilitate their exchange across eTendering platforms.