Definition of Public Tender

State administrations (both local, national or supranational) publish periodically information related to works or services that must be carried out through entities private. 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 bound by law to publicize this type of information.

Traditionally, public contests 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

announcement and that is finally chosen by the administration is the one 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 commission of evaluation specialized for each call. The evaluation commission has to make an objective final opinion based on a score for each draft who intends to get a contract with the administration.

The system by which the administration awards a work or service to an entity is also known as bidding public.

The fundamental aspect of any public tender is its announcement, 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 companies who regularly participate in these contests usually have administrative staff familiar with the tasks and procedures that they must be done.

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 client that 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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