New Public Procurement Acts entered into force on 1 January 2017
The new Acts 1397/2016 on Public Procurement and Service Concessions (Laki julkisista hankinnoista ja käyttöoikeussopimuksista) and 1398/2016 on Public Procurement and Service Concessions in the Sector of Water and Energy, Transport and Postal Services (Laki vesi- ja energiahuollon, liikenteen ja postipalvelujen alalla toimivien yksiköiden hankinnoista ja käyttöoikeussopimuksista) entered into force on 1 January 2017 (together, the new Acts).
The new Acts implement the EU Directives for Public Procurement 23/2014/EU, 24/2014/EU and 25/2014/EU and repeal and replace the previous procurement Acts. As the deadline for the national implementation of the EU Directives was on 17 April 2016, the new Acts were much awaited for.
The new Acts apply to tendering procedures that have been published on 1 January 2017 or after. For a time of transition, three regimes will coexists, depending on the date of publication of the procurement notice: the regime of the previous Acts, the transitional regime with some provisions running until 2022, and the regime of the new Acts.
The Acts regulate the bidding process for public procurement and the related legal remedies. Many changes have occurred in the procedure, the determination of the suitability of candidates, the awarding of contracts, the alteration of the conditions of the contracts, and so on. The new Acts aim to simplify and clarify the procurement rules and make them more flexible.
The tendering procedure will become increasingly an e-service and aims to become fully electronical by 2018 for procurements exceeding the EU threshold.
The tendering procedure must be fair, non-discriminatory, transparent and take into account the requirements of proportionality. Additionally, the procurement units are encouraged to use social and environmental factors in the comparison of the bids and to open the tendering procedures to SMEs.
A lighter national procurement procedure has been introduced for so called ‘small procurements’ that will apply to procurements not exceeding the national thresholds set for products, services and construction works.
Conversely, procurements exceeding the EU thresholds are subject to more stringent requirements. The open (avoin menettely) and restricted procedures (rajoitettu menettely) have not changed much, whereas the negotiated procedure (neuvottelumenettely) and the competitive dialogue procedure (kilpailullinen neuvottelumenettely) have been supplemented with new procedural rules. Two new tendering procedures have been introduced: the partnership procedure for innovations (innovaatiokumppanuus) and the electronic catalogues (sähköiset luettelot) for choosing products.
The appeal procedures remain largely unchanged, with the Market Court continuing to be the competent body of appeal, and the time of appeal generally being 14 days. Additionally, the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority has been given certain powers of supervision and intervention in the case of unlawful direct awards of contract.