The European Ombudsman has recently published a decision advising that the principles of good administration require that public bodies identify the most accurate CPV codes available in tenders, in order that an accurate description of the contract subject is provided to tenderers to enable them to ascertain whether the contract is of interest to them.
The decision follows an inquiry into a complaint over the use of a general, high level CPV code by the European Aviation Safety Agency ("EASA") in respect of a contract for IT services comprising 5 lots for different services. The complainant argued that by using the same general CPV code to describe each of the lots, the EASA failed to properly specify the subject matter of the contract. This, the complainant argued, would make it difficult for potential bidders to identify tenders that were relevant to them.
The Ombudsman recognised that, in the absence of legally binding rules, the guidelines recommend that the selected code should match the goods or services as accurately as possible. While it was accepted that it is logical and reasonable to assume that general, high level codes include all the more specific codes, if a specific code exists to accurately describe the relevant goods or services then this should be used. The Ombudsman considered that the approach of using only the general codes does not sufficiently take into account the legitimate interests of potential tenderers, as many tenderers will only be interested in specific codes that concern goods or services that they offer. As such it would be more difficult for them to identify whether a tender would be of interest to them in the absence of the more specific codes, as this would also require a search of the more general codes.
The Ombudsman therefore concluded that a failure to specify the most accurate CPV codes constitutes maladministration. The most recent CPV codes can be found here.
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