E-tendering system (KGV)

A KGV (konkurransegjennomføringsverktøy) is the e-tendering system the contracting authority uses to run a competition. The word is not in the Public Procurement Act (anskaffelsesloven) or the Public Procurement Regulations (anskaffelsesforskriften); the § references on this page are to the Regulations unless another instrument is named. DFØ (the Norwegian Agency for Public and Financial Management) and Doffin use it, while the Regulations speak of electronic means of communication and of tools and solutions for electronic communication, the «tools and devices» of Directive 2014/24/EU.

In the system, the contracting authority creates the contract notice and sends it to Doffin, the Norwegian national database for procurement notices. It also shares the tender documents there, communicates with suppliers and receives the tenders. DFØ states that contracting authorities today must have a KGV to be able to publish a notice in Doffin and TED (Tenders Electronic Daily), the EU's database of procurement notices, and Doffin only accepts notices from such systems. So Doffin is the database where you find the competition, while the system is where the competition is run. The contracting authority procures the system itself (DFØ), so if you bid for several contracting authorities, you may have to use several systems.

The requirement for electronic communication is in chapter 22 of the Regulations. All communication and information exchange between the contracting authority and the suppliers must be in writing and by electronic means (§ 22-1). Oral communication is allowed if it is documented, but never for the procurement documents, requests to participate, confirmations of interest and tenders. Chapter 22 is in Part III, but it also applies under Part II (§ 8-20), which applies from NOK 1.3 million up to the EEA thresholds (except health and social services), and to special services (særlige tjenester) from NOK 1.3 million with no upper limit, and under Part IV for health and social services (§ 30-1 (6)). The requirement therefore applies at or above NOK 1.3 million, also for special services, but for health and social services only at or above NOK 8.7 million. Between NOK 500,000 and NOK 1.3 million, and for health and social services below NOK 8.7 million, only Part I applies. Part I has no rule on the means of communication. There, in practice, the request for tenders or the tender documents tell you how to submit. Advice: follow what they say. The Utilities Regulations (forsyningsforskriften) have the same requirements in chapter 18, but only in their Part II (contracts at or above the EEA thresholds of NOK 5 million for supply and service contracts and NOK 62.9 million for works) and their Part III (special services and health and social services from NOK 11.6 million) (forsyningsforskriften § 5-1 and § 26-1 (6)); below those values only their Part I applies.

The system must be non-discriminatory, generally available and interoperable with the ICT products in general use, and must not restrict your access to the competition (§ 22-2). No one may have access to the content of the tenders before the time limit has expired, and the exact time when a tender is received must be possible to determine precisely (§ 22-3).

You submit your tender where the tender documents say, which in competitions under Part II and Part III is usually the contracting authority's KGV, not Doffin. If you submit in another way than the contracting authority requires, for example by email when submission in the system is required, the tender must be rejected (§ 9-4 in Part II and § 24-1 in Part III). The same applies to a tender that has not been received by the tender deadline.

The following points on submission are advice, not rules. Advice: register in the system early and sign up for notifications, so you get corrections and answers to questions. Advice: read the tender deadline with date and time, and set your own deadline at least one day before. Advice: upload in good time, because large files, many attachments, the ESPD form in competitions under Part III and any electronic signature take time. Under the Regulations, it is the time of receipt that counts (§ 9-4 and § 24-1), not when you started uploading. The moment the system treats as receipt can vary. Advice: check it in the system, check afterwards that all the documents are included, and keep the receipt if the system gives one. Advice: if the system fails, contact the user support and the contracting authority at once, and document the fault with the time. Who bears the risk when the system itself fails is not settled in the sources; see the question on it below.

You send questions during the competition in writing, through the channel the tender documents specify. The contracting authority may require an electronic signature or an electronic seal when you submit the tender, or an electronic means of identification where a third-party submission solution supports it, and the requirements for the level of security must be stated in the tender documents and may not be higher than the risks justify (§ 22-5).

An IT consultant wants to submit a tender in an open procedure run by a central government directorate, worth NOK 3 million excluding VAT. That is above NOK 1.63 million, the EEA threshold for central government authorities' service contracts, so Part III applies. She finds the contract notice in Doffin and follows the internet address in the notice to the directorate's KGV, where she downloads the tender documents. To submit, she registers her company in the system.

The tender deadline is 1 December at 12:00. She plans to submit the day before, but is delayed and starts uploading at 11:50 on the day of the deadline. The files are large, and the system registers the tender as received at 12:03. The tender has not been received by the tender deadline and must be rejected (§ 24-1). Had she submitted the day before, as she planned, she would have had a day to spare.