Compliance requirements
The bidder is excluded if it is bankrupt or being liquidated, if bankruptcy or liquidation proceedings have been opened against it, if its business activities have been suspended, or if it is in a similar situation. Exclusion also applies if the bidder has outstanding state tax, fee or environmental charge debts, or tax or social security contribution debts, unless the debt has been deferred or paid.
If the contracting authority cannot verify the absence of these debts through public registers, it may request evidence issued no more than two weeks before the deadline for submitting tenders.
A bidder is also excluded if any of the grounds listed in Section 95(1) points 1–3 and 5 of the Public Procurement Act apply and the general declaration in the register is not sufficient, or if the required information is not submitted on time. In addition, the bidder must confirm that its average employee salary meets the required 70% threshold, if it has employees, and that it is not a related person to the technical consultant advising the apartment building reconstruction. In a joint tender, these checks apply to all joint bidders.
Qualification criteria and exclusion grounds
The bidder must be registered in the Estonian Register of Economic Activities for construction activities covering general construction, indoor climate systems, and water supply or sewerage systems within a building or connected to it. For electrical works, the bidder must also be registered for electrical works covering the construction, including installation, of an electrical installation. The registration requirement does not apply to foreign bidders; in that case, equivalent proof of competence must be provided.
The bidder’s net turnover for the financial year preceding the submission of the tender must be at least equal to twice the expected contract value, excluding VAT. The exact amount must be entered as a specific sum to the nearest euro.
Within the 60 months before the start of the procurement procedure, the bidder must have completed at least one equivalent construction contract with a value of at least half of the expected contract value. An equivalent contract means construction of a building, extension of a building, or full-building reconstruction as the main contractor, and it must have included at least one of the following: construction or reconstruction of load-bearing and external envelope structures, construction or reconstruction of a heat-recovery forced ventilation system, or construction or reconstruction of a new heating system. The bidder must provide the project name/building details, the time of performance, the value, whether it was new construction, extension or full reconstruction as main contractor, and whether it included the required works.
The bidder’s team must include the following competent persons, or equivalent persons for a foreign bidder, and their competence must be proven by the relevant professional qualification or equivalent proof: project manager, site manager, ventilation and heating systems specialist, water supply and sewerage systems specialist, and, if electrical works are performed, an electrical specialist with at least B-class competence certificate or an electrical engineer qualification at level 6 for consumer electrical installations. The bidder must provide the names and certificate numbers of the required specialists. If the bidder relies on the indicators of another person, signed confirmations from those persons for participation in contract performance must be attached.
For the building reconstruction part, the bidder must also confirm that it has not relied on another person’s indicators unless the required signed confirmations are included. For the architect-related requirement, the team must include an authorised architect at level 7 or an equivalent foreign professional who is responsible for compliance of the construction project with the European New Bauhaus requirements. The machine-readable notice does not give the full details of this requirement; the official tender documents must be checked.