Contract types and purchasing conditions

We award contracts as public contracts or as framework agreements. In doing so, we apply jointly agreed terms and conditions or the water board procurement conditions.

  • A public contract is a written agreement between HHNK, one or more companies, and possibly one or more other public authorities. In a public contract, we make performance agreements with the party or parties involved regarding the execution of works, the delivery of products, or the provision of services. In doing so, we comply with the European Public Procurement Directive, and a purchase and delivery obligation applies. The term of the contract is freely determinable.
  • A framework agreement or master agreement is not a contract but a preparatory step for placing future orders (products, services, or works). For the duration of this agreement, we establish delivery conditions on the basis of which we award future contracts. These conditions include price, quality, quantity, and delivery time. We conclude a framework agreement with one or more contractors (at least three). If there are multiple parties, we apply competitive tendering when placing orders under the framework agreement. We lay down the conditions for this mini-competition in the framework agreement. The term of a framework agreement is four years, but we sometimes deviate from this. In such cases, we justify our decision.

Agreements for work

We use integrated contract forms based on the jointly agreed terms and conditionsof UAV-GC 2005 to carry out our work. Engineering & Construct and Design & Construct are the most common forms.

  • We use Engineering & Construct contracts for projects with little or no design component: the contractor carries out the work with a minimal amount of detailed engineering. This type of contract is very similar to Design & Construct, but the design is limited to the engineering. We draw up a functionally specified request for quotation.
  • We use Design & Construct contracts when the contractor is responsible for designing and constructing a project. We draw up a functionally specified request for proposals. The contractor is given the freedom to apply innovations. Design and execution must be coordinated as closely as possible.
  • We also carry out work based on the RAW system: the standard specifications system in the civil engineering sector. This means that we specify exactly what the desired solution is in a set of specifications and drawings. The contractor then implements this design. The agreements we conclude for this are based on the Uniform Administrative Conditions 2012 (UAV-2012), whereby project-specific exceptions to these conditions may be included in the specifications or work description.

Terms and Conditions of Purchase

When contracting for supplies and services, we apply the general purchasing conditions of the water authorities: