Annex II.1 Lists of economic operators and market surveys for the awarding of contracts of amounts lower than the thresholds of European relevance.

(Article 50, paragraphs 2 and 3)

Article 1.

General provisions.

1. The economic operators to be invited to negotiated procedures for the awarding of works contracts of an amount equal to or greater than 150,000 and of service and supply contracts of an amount equal to or greater than 140,000 euros and below the thresholds of European relevance referred to in the article 14 of the code are identified on the basis of market surveys or through lists of economic operators, in compliance with the assignment rotation criterion referred to in article 49 of the code.

2. The procedure begins with the decision to contract or with an equivalent act according to the regulations of the individual contracting authority which contains the indication of the public interest that is intended to be satisfied, the characteristics of the works, goods or services covered by the contract, the estimated maximum amount of the credit and the related accounting coverage, the procedure that is intended to be followed with a brief indication of the reasons for the choice, the criteria for identifying the operators to be invited to the negotiated procedure following the market survey or of the consultation of the lists, the criteria for the selection of economic operators and offers as well as the main contractual conditions.

3. The contracting authorities may equip themselves, in compliance with their own regulations, with a regulation which regulates:

a) the methods of conducting market surveys, possibly distinguished by amount ranges, also in consideration of the need to apply the principle of rotation of assignments;

b) the procedures for establishing and reviewing the list of economic operators, broken down by category and amount range;

c) the criteria for choosing the subjects to be invited to submit an offer following a market survey or drawing from the list of its own economic operators or from those present in the electronic market of public administrations or in other similar tools managed by the relevant purchasing centers.

Article 2.

Market investigations.

1. The market survey is aimed at knowing the operators interested in participating in the selection procedures for the specific assignment. This phase does not give operators any confidence in the subsequent invitation to the procedure. Market surveys are carried out according to the methods deemed most convenient by the contracting authority, differentiated by amount and complexity of assignment, according to the principles of adequacy and proportionality, also through consultation of the electronic catalogs of the electronic market of its own or of other contracting authorities, as well as of other existing suppliers. The results of the investigations are formalized by the contracting authority with the exclusion of information that could compromise the position of the operators on the reference market and, in any case, in compliance with the provisions of article 35 of the code in reference to the timeframe foreseen for the knowledge of some tender data and documents.

2. The contracting authority ensures the appropriate publicity of the market exploration activity, choosing the most suitable tools based on the relevance of the contract for the reference product sector and its contestability. To this end, the contracting authority publishes a notice on its institutional website and on the ANAC national database of public contracts. The duration of the publication is established based on the relevance of the contract, for a minimum period identifiable as fifteen days, without prejudice to the reduction of the aforementioned term for justified reasons of urgency to no less than five days.

3. The notice of initiation of the market investigation indicates the value of the assignment, the essential elements of the contract, the professional suitability requirements, the minimum economic and financial capacity requirements and the technical and professional skills required for participation, the minimum and possibly maximum number of operators who will be invited to the procedure, the selection criteria of economic operators, the methods for communicating with the contracting authority. In the event that there is a maximum number of operators to be invited, the notice of initiation of the market investigation also indicates the criteria used for the choice of operators. These criteria must be objective, consistent with the object and purpose of the award and with the principles of competition, non-discrimination, proportionality and transparency. The drawing of lots or other methods of random extraction of names are permitted only in exceptional cases in which the use of the criteria referred to in the third period is impossible or entails costs for the contracting authority that are absolutely incompatible with the rapid carrying out of the procedure; these circumstances must be made explicit in the decision to contract (or in an equivalent document) and in the notice of initiation of the market investigation.

Article 3.

Lists of economic operators.

1. As an alternative to the market survey, the contracting authority may identify the economic operators to invite, selecting them from lists specifically established according to the methods indicated in the following provisions and in the regulation referred to in article 1, paragraph 3. The lists are established following of public notice, which represents the will of the contracting authority to create a list of subjects from which the names of the operators to be invited can be taken. The notice of establishment of a list of economic operators is made available through publication on the institutional website of the contracting authority and on the ANAC national database of public contracts. The notice indicates the general requirements that economic operators must possess, the method of selecting the economic operators to be invited, the categories and amount bands into which the administration intends to divide the list and any minimum requirements required for the registration, parameterized according to each category or amount range. The economic operator can request registration limited to one or more amount bands, or to single categories. The declaration of possession of the requirements can be facilitated by the preparation of standard forms by the administration attached to the public notice. Possibility of possession of the SOA qualification certificate for the category of work covered by the assignment is sufficient to demonstrate possession of the required economic-financial and technical-professional capacity requirements.

2. Registration on the lists of interested economic operators meeting the required requirements is permitted without time limitations. The economic operator certifies possession of the requirements by means of a substitute declaration in compliance with the provisions of the consolidated text of the legislative and regulatory provisions regarding administrative documentation, referred to in the decree of the President of the Republic of 28 December 2000, n. 445. The economic operator is required to promptly inform the contracting authority of any changes in the possession of the requirements according to the methods established by the same. The contracting authority proceeds to evaluate the registration requests within thirty days of receiving the request, without prejudice to the provision of a longer deadline, not exceeding ninety days, depending on the number of requests received. Failure to refuse within the prescribed period is equivalent to acceptance of the registration request.

3. The contracting authority establishes the procedures for reviewing the list, with a pre-established frequency - for example every six months - or upon the occurrence of certain events and, in any case, provides for the cancellation of operators who have lost the required requirements or for the their placement in different sections of the list. The transmission of the request for confirmation of registration and requirements can take place via PEC and, in turn, the economic operator can reply via PEC. Those economic operators who do not submit offers following three invitations in the two-year period may be excluded from the list. The lists, as soon as they are created, are published on the website of the contracting authority.

4. The choice of operators to be invited to the negotiated procedure must be made according to objective criteria, consistent with the object and purpose of the award and with the principles of competition, non-discrimination, proportionality and transparency. The drawing of lots or other methods of random extraction of names are permitted only in exceptional cases in which the use of the criteria referred to in the first period is impossible or entails costs for the contracting authority that are absolutely incompatible with the rapid carrying out of the procedure. The selection criteria of the operators to be invited to the negotiated procedure are indicated in the decision to contract or in another equivalent document.