The Managing Authority (MA) of the Bulgaria-Turkey IPA Cross-border Programme would like to inform the beneficiaries, implementing projects under the Programme, about one of the most recent changes in the Practical Guide to contract procedures for EU external action (PRAG) concerning the Competitive negotiated procedures and Single tender procedures for service contract.

According to the new version of PRAG (p.68) "the Contracting Authority draws up a list of at least three service providers of its choice. The candidates are sent a letter of invitation to tender accompanied by a tender dossier. The specific annexes for simplified tenders shall be used (procurement notice, tender form, admin grid, contract form, list of invited tenderers and invitation letter), for this procedure as well as for the single tender procedure" .

In this connection, MA would like to clarify that the procedures which have been launched before the new PRAG entered into force on January 20th 2012, will be implementing the old PRAG version, whereas the procedures launched after this date have to follow the new PRAG rules. The starting date of the procedures should be considered either as the date of the announcement of the procedures or the date of the invitation letters sent.

Additionally, MA would like to remind the beneficiaries that in case of conduction of single tender procedure the respective Contracting Authority must prepare a report (annex A10_b Negotiation report for single tender procedures) in order to ensure that the basic principles relating to the procedure such as checking compliance with eligibility rules (nationality rules), capacity to carry out the contract and exclusion criteria are duly applied. 

To see the updated version of the PRAG please refer to the following link: http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/eprag
 
A presentation of main changes to the PRAG and a track change version of the document are available at: http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/work/procedures/implementation/index_en.htm