How to check if you meet the eligibility criteria on a public tender

You meet the eligibility criteria when the company can evidence every mandatory selection line in the notice. A matching title, sector or buyer does not do that. If one mandatory line is missing, and the notice does not let another entity cover it on the conditions it states, the buyer can reject the offer before scoring.

Separate exclusion, selection and award

Exclusion grounds ask whether the operator may take part at all. Under Article 57 of Directive 2014/24/EU, that includes certain final criminal convictions and unpaid taxes or social contributions established by a final decision. Selection criteria ask whether the operator can perform this contract: turnover, insurance, references, staff and certifications. Award criteria score the tenders that get through. A quality score does not repair a failed selection line.

Read turnover as a figure, with a legal cap in EU procedures

Article 58(3) lets a buyer require a minimum yearly turnover, including turnover in the field of the contract. In procedures covered by that directive, the minimum yearly turnover shall not exceed twice the estimated contract value, except in duly justified cases, and the buyer must give the main reasons in the procurement documents or the procurement report. That is a limit on what the buyer may demand. It is not a figure you can assume. Some notices use an average of three years. Some use only the field of the contract. Below the EU thresholds, national rules can differ, so use the notice in front of you.

Turnover from a parent counts only where the notice lets you rely on that entity. For economic and financial standing, Article 63 says the buyer may require the bidder and that entity to be jointly liable for performing the contract. A group chart is not that commitment.

A reference is the contract, not the story of it

The buyer sets how many contracts, how recent, what kind of client and the minimum value. A project below that value, or for a different kind of client, does not meet the line, however close the work was. The proof is the document the notice names, often a certificate of completion or a client confirmation with dates and value. A description of how the work went is not that document.

A certificate is a document in force, in the right name

If the notice names a quality, environmental or security scheme, the certificate has to be that scheme, in force, and held by the legal entity the criterion points to. Article 62 points buyers who ask for a quality or environmental system towards certificates from accredited bodies, with room for equivalent measures where the article allows them. Writing that the company works to the standard does not meet a line that asks for the certificate. An expired certificate does not meet it either.

Mark every line, then decide whether a partner can close it

• Meets: the file shows the figure, the contract or the certificate the line asks for.
• Partially meets: some of the evidence is there, and a stated part is not.
• Partner needed: the notice allows another entity to cover this line, and you can name who would, on the conditions the notice sets.
• Does not meet: the evidence contradicts the line, or the notice does not allow anyone else to cover it.
• Unknown: the company file is silent. Unknown is not a match.

For professional experience, Article 63 allows reliance only where the other entity will perform the works or services that experience relates to. You have to prove the commitment, for example with a written undertaking. A partner in the same trade, missing the same reference, does not change the result. A suggested name is not that undertaking.

This example is fictional. The notice requires three contracts, each worth at least €2 million, completed in the last three years for a public client. The company has two contracts. The larger is €1.4 million, and the client was private. That line does not meet. A second company with one public contract of €2.2 million could matter only if the notice allows reliance for that experience and that company will perform the related part of the work. Without both, the status stays "does not meet". If the accounts on file do not state turnover for the years the notice asks for, that line is unknown, not a pass.

How Tender Town marks each mandatory line

Fit analysis sets each requirement taken from the notice against the company evidence on the scope, and it leaves a silent line unknown. A proposal brief, on a plan that includes one, is written from that evaluation and keeps the lines that are not met.

See an example