Ministry of Finance and Economic Development

MINISTRY OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Procurement Policy Office

Level 8, Emmanuel Anquetil Building,
Port Louis, Mauritius

Directive No 11

(issued pursuant to section 7 of the Public Procurement Act)

Technical Specifications

(a)Public bodies shall not prepare, adopt or apply any technical specifications or descriptions with the effect of eliminating or restricting competition, or discriminating against eligible suppliers.

(b)Descriptions and definitions of procurement requirements:-

(i) shall be formulated in terms of performance wherever possible rather than design or descriptive characteristics; or

(ii) may be formulated in terms of international and national standards, so as to maximize competition and avoid creating unnecessary obstacles to participation by bidders in the procurement proceedings, while ensuring that applicable national and international standards and the requisite quality levels are met.

(c) No requirement or reference shall be made in the technical specifications to a particular trademark or name, patent, design or type, specific original, producer or service provider, unless:

(i) there is no sufficiently precise or intelligible way of describing the procurement requirements; and

(ii) words such as “or equivalent” are included in the specifications.

(d) Where a public body makes use of the option of referring to standards, or common technical specifications, it cannot reject a bid on the grounds that the goods and services proposed for do not comply with a required standard or common technical specification where the bidder can show in its bid, by whatever appropriate means, that the solutions the bidder proposes satisfy in an equivalent manner the requirements defined by the technical specifications in the bidding documents. An appropriate means is constituted by a technical dossier of the manufacturer or a test report of a body which is a third party.

(e) Where a public body uses the option of describing the requirements in terms of performance, it may not reject a bid for goods or services which comply with an applicable national or international standard, or a common technical specification, if those standards address the same functional and performance requirements and are appropriate.

(f)The bidder must demonstrate in its bid by any appropriate means such as a technical dossier or a test report by a third party that the product or service in compliance with the standard meets the functional or performance requirements of the contracting authority.

(g) Public bodies shall state in the bidding documents the minimum specifications to be respected by alternatives and any specific requirements for their assessment. The procuring entities shall indicate in the bidding documents if alternatives are permitted.

Procurement Policy Office
17 December 2012