The law of public procurement mandates the FinELib consortium to acquire certain e-resources by procurement procedures defined in the law. This law is based on the EU legislation on public procurement and is applied to public sector acquisitions and contracting authorities; the FinELib consortium is such an authority.
FinELib organises the tendering process mandated in law if
- the estimated value of the contract exceeds the national financial threshold (60 000 Euros) and
- the e-resource to be acquired is available from several vendors.
FinELib is using an open procedure where all interested parties can submit a tender in response to the contract notice published on the Finnish HILMA portal (www.hankintailmoitukset.fi). The contract notices and the documents of invitation for tender will also be published on this website. Any interested vendors are able to participate in the tendering process by following the instructions presented in the contract notice and in the invitation for tender.
The tendering process includes several conditions and procedures defined by law. Regarding the above-mentioned resources, it is not permitted for FinELib to directly choose a single vendor for negotiations. Instead, the selection of tenderer for the subsequent agreement term will take place on the grounds of the absolute requirements and evaluation criteria presented in the invitation for tender. In addition, the tenderers must strictly follow the instructions regarding the deadline for submission of the tender and the information and responses required for tenders.
The tenderer is responsible for submitting the tender on time. A tender arriving late will be excluded from the tendering process. The tenderer must use the given documents and answering grids in his tender. It is not permitted to make any additions, omissions or deletions to the texts of the documents or include any attachments unless they are explicitly requested. Doing so may result in the tenderer being excluded from the tendering process.
All participants shall be informed of the tender evaluation and the procurement decision.
Additional information regarding FinELib’s tendering process: [email protected]
Questions and answers
Q: What currency should the pricing be in?
A: If we have specifically requested the tenders in a certain currency, for example in Euros, then this is expressed in pricing grid in Tender document 2. If the currency is mentioned in pricing grid, then tenders in other currencies will be overruled.
Q: Can the tenderer use any alternative pricing model in its tender?
A: No. The pricing must be presented according to what is requested in Tender document 2. If any other pricing model is used, the tender will be excluded from the evaluation.
Q: Where the tenderer can check the the Numbers of Users applied to these tendering processes?
A: The updated Numbers of Users can be found at: Users
It's stated in the first page of the invitation for tender that: The columns “All users” or “Total” will be applied in section “1. Price” in Tender document 2.
Q: The service provider has refused to accept the agreement terms of invitation for tender. How should the tenderer proceed in this situation?
A: Only the terms presented in Tender Document 1 are absolute requirements. The tender which fails to match with the absolute requirements or includes any additions, omissions, amendments or prohibited attachments to Tender document 1 will be excluded from the evaluation. Please also notice that the draft agreement (attachment of the invitation for tender) will not be used as such in its entirety.
Q: Can the tenderer participate in the tendering process by offering some corresponding database?
A: The tender must be consistent with the description of the procurement in Section 2 “Information on the procurement subject” of the invitation for tender.
Q: The tenderer’s pricing would be different for various library sectors. How should the tenderer proceed in this situation?
A: The tenderer should set its pricing according to likely subscribers presented in the Invitation for tender and in Tender document 2.
Q: Do the service providers send FinELib the data fees or any other parts of the actual prices?
A: The service providers do not send FinELib any data fees or parts of the prices unless they are participating in the process as a tenderer.
