State administrations (both local, national or supranational) periodically publish information related to works or services that must be carried out through private entities. This type of information is called a public tender. The term contest is used because the different companies compete with each other to achieve the work or service announced in the newsletter. And the word public is due to the fact that administrations are obliged by law to publicize this type of information.
Traditionally, public competitions were made on paper, specifically the official state gazettes. However, in the digital age this information can already be obtained using specialized search engines.
Some general aspects of public tenders
The purpose of the public tender is to carry out a work or service complying with a series of technical and administrative requirements and at the best possible price for the administration.
The company or entity that meets all the requirements indicated in the call and is finally chosen by the administration is in charge of carrying out the tasks indicated in the call and for this it must fulfill a contract.
To guarantee that the public tender is a transparent process and subject to the law, the corresponding administration has a specialized evaluation commission for each announcement. The evaluation commission has to make an objective final opinion based on a score for each project that intends to obtain a contract with the administration.
The system by which the administration awards a work or service to an entity is also known as a public tender.
The fundamental aspect of any public tender is the announcement thereof, which specifies all the conditions and requirements that companies must meet to be eligible for the contest. In this sense, the bases of the calls indicate a whole series of aspects to take into account: dates for the presentation of documents, possible resources, the characteristics of the technical project, the dates for the provisional and definitive admission of those admitted to the contest, etc.
From an administrative point of view, it must be taken into account that the technical domain of public tenders is complex, so that the companies that regularly participate in these tenders usually have administrative personnel familiar with the tasks and procedures that must be carried out.
There are many types of public competitions: for the management of cafeteria services in public spaces, for cleaning services or for the management of cultural centers. In most cases, the administration is the customer who pays for a service, although there are also contests in which the administration is the one who receives the money from a private company.
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