The Council of Ministers in Turkey has issued principles for procurements made within the scope of Article 3(f) of Public Procurement Law Number 4734 ("Law") by the Ministry of Transportation, Maritime Affairs and Communications ("Ministry"; "Principles"). The Principles apply to procurement of all research and development services which are fully financed by the administrative authority, in line with the relevant exclusion under the Public Procurement Law, where the procurement will be utilized by public institutions and organizations, universities, as well as private sector or non-governmental organizations. The Principles were published in Official Gazette number 29589 on 10 January 2016 and entered into effect on the same date.

The administration is responsible for ensuring transparency, competition, equal treatment, reliability, confidentiality, public inspection, proper and timely fulfilment of needs, as well as efficient use of resources during public procurement performed in line with the Principles.

Significant provisions in the Principles include:

  • Conditions for determining project topics, project evaluation groups and preparing project proposal templates.
  • Rules for participating in public procurement. Participants can request certain documents and information during eligibility assessment.
  • Application procedures. Open tender procedures and negotiation procedures are the noted methods, in line with the Principles. In some circumstances, goods and services can be directly procured without any announcements and without taking provisional guarantees, through negotiating the administrative and technical terms, as well as the price.
  • Conditions for presenting and evaluating bids.
  • Regulations for terms and conditions of written agreements concluded between the administration and the contractor as well as amendment and assignment of such agreements.

Please see this link for the full text of the Council of Ministers' Decision, including the Principles (only available in Turkish).

Information first published in the MA | Gazette, a fortnightly legal update newsletter produced by Moroğlu Arseven.

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