If you were not awarded the contract

If your tender was not accepted and you were not awarded a contract, there is every reason to investigate the reason for it. It will be essential to learn why your tender was not accepted in the event of future procurements.

The information on this page concerns procurements in accordance with:

  • the Public Procurement Act (LOU)
  • the Act on Procurement in the Water, Energy, Transport and Postal Services Sectors (LUF).

Request access to the tenders

As a rule, when the award decision has been made, all documents in the procurement, such as tenders, records and award decisions pertaining to the procurement, will be made public. The same applies if the procurement is cancelled. As a supplier, you can request access to these documents from the procuring organisation.

Since procurements normally are public documents, you have the right to request access to them from the procuring organisation. The amount of time it takes to receive the documents can vary, but the procuring organisation must process your request promptly. There may be a surcharge for copying and sending these documents.

Have the requirements not been fulfilled

Contact the procuring organisation to obtain information about why your tender was not accepted. The procuring organisation can only accept tenders that are deemed to have fulfilled the procurement requirements.

Avoid unnecessary mistakes

In order to avoid unnecessary errors in future procurements, always be meticulous when reading the tender documents and drafting your tender. Each procurement is unique and the requirements vary from one procurement to another.

Why was your tender not accepted?

As a tenderer, you may find yourself in different situations that might impact your chances of not being excluded from a procurement. There may be four reasons why your tender was not accepted

  • excluded in accordance with the exclusion grounds
  • rejected – does not fulfil the qualification requirements
  • rejected – does not fulfil mandatory requirements on the procurement item
  • not the most financially beneficial tender.

Excluded in accordance with the exclusion grounds

The supplier will be excluded from a procurement if, for example, they or one of their representatives has been found guilty of a crime or other offence.

Rejected – does not fulfil the qualification requirements

In this step, an assessment is made of whether the supplier has sufficient resources and capacity to fulfil the procured assignment. As regards qualifications the rules are considerably more detailed for procurements that exceed the threshold than for other procurements.

Rejected – does not fulfil mandatory requirements on the procurement item

The tender will be rejected unless all requirements on the procurement item are fulfilled.

Not the most financially beneficial tender

Procuring organisations will accept the most financially beneficial tender based on the award criteria outlined in the procurement document. As a rule, the award criteria will be weighted against one another. Suppliers shall unambiguously be aware of what is considered to be of importance in the assessment.