A public contract is an agreement between a public contracting authority and a company or a group of companies. Thus, public contracts are established to meet various needs, whether for works, supplies, or services. As a result, once all applications have been submitted, the public contracting authority must review each one individually. Generally, public contracts are subject to three main principles. These are the equality of treatment reserved for candidates, transparency in procedures, and freedom of access to markets. To ensure compliance with these fundamental principles and to harmonize the public procurement sector, there is a code that contains a set of standards that must be strictly adhered to. So, what can we find in the public procurement code?
The procedures found in the public procurement code
There are two types of procedures found in the public procurement code. There are adapted procedures and formalized procedures. The adapted procedures are quite flexible and less demanding. Contracting authorities, whether the State or local authorities, set their own rules for the awarding or granting of contracts, taking into account the fundamental principles of public procurement. Thus, very small enterprises (VSEs) or small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) most often target public contracts with adapted procedures.
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Regarding formalized procedures, they follow strict rules. Here, the contracting authority must adhere to the awarding and granting standards stated in the public procurement code — CPM. Consequently, formalized procedures are most often calls for tenders, whether open or restricted, competitive dialogue, or negotiated procedures. Today, there is a new update to the public procurement code. To better understand the formalized procedures, it is important to know about the 2019 public procurement code.
What can we retain from the 2019 public procurement code?
The 2019 public procurement code sets the general standards regarding the awarding and execution not only of public contracts but also of concession contracts. The new public procurement code does not fundamentally change the new regulations applicable to public contracts. This new code comes at the right time to gather all the rules governing public law and procurement. Because the latter were scattered across nearly 30 different texts.
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The new public code includes three main parts. The first part mentions the texts that regulate public procurement, the second part exclusively includes all texts related to public contracts, and the third part discusses concession contracts and the texts that organize these types of contracts.