On 08/05/2023, a conference was held about the implementation
of eForms in Public Procurement. This
conference was organised by the Department of Contracts, the System Developers,
European Dynamics and co-financed by the Connecting Europe
Facility of the European Union. A number
of stakeholders who will be impacted by the changeover to eForms attended this
conference.
The details below are some of the information that came out of this conference.
A Brief History of eForms
The European Union
Commission implemented Regulation (EU) 2019/1780, titled: Establishing standard forms for the
publication of notices in the field of public procurement and repealing
Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/1986 (‘eForms’) on 23/09/2019.
This regulation was
published on the European Union Official Journal on 25/10/2019 and entered into
force on the 20th day following its publication, that is on 14/11/2022.
These forms will become mandatory
to all Member States on 25/10/2023 after a transitional period of five (5)
months.
Who will use eForms
The eForms will be used by
all Contracting Authorities when publishing notices on the EU Official Journal
(Tenders Electronic Daily (TED)) through ePPS. These would replace the forms that are currently
available. It is to be noted that the eForms
are an evolution of the current notices that are used to publish notices on the
TED.
What are the Advantages
and Benefits of using eForms
There are a number of advantages
and benefits when using eForms, these are:
- Increased
information accuracy
- Digitisation
and simplification
- Enhanced
consistency amongst forms
- Extended
and intensified flexibility
- Improved
governance
- Simplified
processes
Since the eForms
are an evolutionary step, the names of the three (3) main forms remain
unchanged. These are the:
- Prior
Information Notice (PIN)
-
Contract
Notice (CN), and
- Contract
Award Notice (CAN)
with each notice
having its own distinct schema as per Regulation. These three (3) schemas are foreseen to cover
the 40 situations listed in the eForms Regulation.
This Regulation
establishes the following standard forms:
1. Planning
2. Competition
3. Direct
Award Prenotification (DAP)
4. Result
5. Contract
modification
6. Change
It is to be
noted the eForms used on ePPS have been tailored for the Maltese public procurement
environment, through an internal DoC Working Group.
These new
eForms will be applicable to the following Directives:
- Classic
-
Concession
Contracts
-
Defence
-
Remedies
-
Security,
and
-
Utilities