03 May 2016
For some time now academics and legal commentators have reported on the fact that some price scoring formulas commonly used by contracting authorities are flawed, with the potential of breaching the most important EU procurement principles – non-discrimination and equal treatment of economic operators, transparency and proportionality.
This is odd for several reasons. Firstly, because the procurement regime is predicated on producing transparent and fair results or outcomes. Secondly, because price, unlike quality, does appear to be a more straightforward criterion to evaluate, if only because price can be evaluated in accordance with an arithmetic formula – what could be simpler?
As I hope to demonstrate, however, evaluating prices in tenders can be arbitrary and lacking transparency, leading to discrimination in many instances.
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