Division of contract into Lots

Contracting authorities must consider whether the procurement could be divided into smaller ‘lot’s to make the contract more favourable to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

If the contracting authority decides not to subdivide the contract into lots, an indication of the main reasons for their decision shall be included in the procurement documents or the report referred to in Regulation 84.

If the contract is divided into lots the contract notice must indicate whether tenderers may be submitted for one, for several or for all of the lots.

Where tenders may be submitted for several or all lots, the contracting authority may limit the number of lots that may be awarded to one tenderer, provided that the maximum number of lots per tenderer is stated in the contract notice.  The objective and non-discriminatory criteria or rules to be applied to determine which lots will be awarded where the application of the award criteria would result in one tenderer being awarded more lots that the maximum number, must be indicated in the procurement documents.

Where more than one lot may be awarded to the same tenderer, contracting authorities may award contracts combining several or all lots where they have specified in the contract notice that they reserve the possibility of doing so and indicate the lots or group of lots that may be combined.