Art. 140. Rules applicable to social services and other services specific to special sectors

1. Contracts for social and other specific services listed in Annex IX shall be awarded in accordance with the Articles 142, 143, 144, without prejudice to what provided for in this Article. The provisions of article 142, paragraph 5-octies, apply to the services referred to in Article 142, paragraph 5-bis, in special sectors, for amounts below the threshold referred to in Article 35, paragraph 2, letter c). With regard to the regulation of publication of notices and notices, contracting entities wishing to award a contract for the services referred to in this paragraph shall make known their intention by one of the following methods:

a) by means of a contract notice;

b) by means of a periodic indicative notice, which is published on an ongoing basis. The indicative periodic notice refers specifically to the types of services that will be the subject of the contracts to be awarded. It indicates that the contracts will be awarded without subsequent publication and invites the economic operators concerned to express their interest in writing;

c) through a notice on the existence of a qualification system that is published on an ongoing basis.

2. Paragraph 1 shall not apply where a procedure negotiated without prior notice of tender has been used, in accordance with Article 63, for the award of public service contracts.

3. Contracting entities which have awarded a contract for the services referred to in this Article shall make the result known by an award notice. However, they may group these notices on a quarterly basis. In this case they shall send the group notices at the latest thirty days after the end of each quarter.