Laws and regulations governing procurement
HHNK complies with the applicable laws and regulations when tendering for projects and services. These European and national rules are designed to ensure the free movement of goods, services, and capital between EU member states and optimal market functioning.
European directive
Dutch laws and regulations governing public procurement are based on European Directive 2014/24/EU. The European rules were implemented in the Netherlands in the 2012 Public Procurement Act. The current version of the Act entered into force on July 1, 2016.
Procurement Act 2012
The2012 Public Procurement Act( ) applies to all tenders issued by public and semi-public institutions in the Netherlands. With this act, the Netherlands has implemented the European directives on public procurement.
A number of provisions from the Act have been further elaborated in an order in council (Procurement Decree):
- The 2012 Public Procurement Act considers the principle of proportionality to be one of the fundamental principles of public procurement law. This means that the requirements that a contractor must meet in a tender must be proportionate to the contract. The guideline for this is theProportionality Guide. The Guide explains the principle in detail and contains practical examples. The principle of proportionality applies to both European and national tenders as well as to multiple private procedures.
- TheUniform European Procurement Document (UEA) is a self-declaration regarding the financial situation, capabilities, and suitability of companies for a tendering procedure.
- The2016 Procurement Regulations for Works (ARW 2016)describe the procedures for tendering contracts for works, but we also apply the regulations to supplies and services. This promotes uniformity in our tender documents and ensures that our working methods are recognizable and predictable for the market.
The new Water Authorities Procurement and Tendering Policy 2025 differs from previous policy years. Whereas the earlier policy documents from 2012 and 2016 mainly focused on the implementation (the 'HOW') of procurement, the new procurement and tendering policy emphasizes the objective (the 'WHY').
Since this is a uniform policy, the specific legal implementation rules contained in the water authorities' previous procurement and tendering policy must be 'transferred' to an internal implementation framework at each water authority. Under this new policy, it is left to the water authorities themselves to decide how the various tendering procedures for below-threshold contracts are organized and what exceptional situations exist.
Read under Tendering procedures how HHNK has implemented this.