Art. 134. System of qualification of economic operators

1. Contracting entities may establish and operate a system of qualification of economic operators. In such a case, those entities shall ensure that economic operators are at all times able to request qualification.

2. The system under paragraph 1 may involve different qualification stages. Contracting entities shall establish objective rules and criteria for the exclusion and selection of economic operators requesting qualification and objective criteria and rules for the operation of the qualification system, covering matters such as inscription in the system, periodic updating of the qualifications, if any, and the duration of the system. Where those criteria and rules include technical specifications, Articles 68, 69 and 82 shall apply. The criteria and rules may be updated as required.

3. The criteria and rules referred to in paragraph 2 shall be made available to economic operators on request, and shall be communicated to interested economic operators. A contracting entity may use the qualification system established by another contracting entity or a third body, giving adequate communication to interested economic operators.

4. Contracting entities shall establish and update a list of economic operators, which may be divided into categories according to the type of contracts for which the qualification is valid.

5. The criteria and norms referred to in paragraph 3 shall include the exclusion criteria set out in Article 136.

6. In the case of the establishment and management of a qualification system referred to in paragraph 1, the contracting entities shall observe:

a) Article 128 as regards the existence of a qualification system;

b) Article 132, as regards information to those who have requested a qualification.

7. The contracting entity which establishes and manages the qualification system shall establish the documents, certificates and substitutive declarations which must accompany the application for registration, and may not ask for certificates or documents which reproduce valid documents already in the availability of the contracting entity. The documents, certificates and substitutive declarations, if written in a language other than Italian, are accompanied by an Italian translation certified according to the original text by the Italian diplomatic or consular authorities of the country in which they were written, or by a official translator.

8. When a call for competition is made by means of a notice on the existence of a qualification system, specific contracts for the works, supplies or services covered by the qualification system shall be awarded by restricted procedures or negotiated procedures, in which all tenderers and participants are selected among the candidates already qualified in accordance with such a system.

9. Any charges that are billed in connection with requests for qualification or with updating or conserving an already obtained qualification pursuant to the system shall be proportionate to the generated costs.