Notice of Guangdong Provincial Department of Finance on Further standardizing the response

Yuecai Procurement [2023] No. 3

Provincial budget units, procurement agencies:

In order to further regulate government procurement behavior, protect the legitimate rights and interests of parties participating in government procurement activities, establish a standardized and efficient government procurement question reply mechanism, maintain the good order of the government procurement market in our province, and create an open, fair, efficient and transparent government procurement environment, we hereby notify the matters related to further standardizing government procurement question reply work as follows:

　　1. attach great importance to and fully understand the importance of doing a good job in answering questions

It is an objective need to implement government procurement laws and regulations, maintain the fairness and justice of government procurement, and also an important way to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of suppliers. All purchasers and procurement agencies should attach great importance to the response to government procurement questions, further enhance legal awareness, clarify responsibilities, pay attention to ways and methods, and deal with them objectively and fairly. It is necessary to establish and improve the working mechanism for replying to questions, take effective means to encourage parties to resolve disputes through consultation, and improve the flexibility and effectiveness of dispute resolution.

　　2. Handle the matter in accordance with the law and strictly regulate the questioning response procedure

(1) Clarify the subject of responsibility for the question reply.The purchaser is the main body responsible for answering the question of government procurement. Where the procurement agency is entrusted by the purchaser to handle the government procurement question reply, it shall sign an principal-agent agreement with the purchaser to specify the scope and authority of the agency question reply. Where the purchaser entrusts the purchasing agency to answer the question, the content of the reply shall be confirmed in writing by the purchaser.

(2) Standardize the handling of challenges.The purchaser and the procurement agency shall go through the procedures for signing the letter of challenge after receiving it, and shall not refuse to accept the letter of challenge submitted by the supplier for any reason. The purchaser and the procurement agency shall complete the preliminary examination within 2 working days after receiving the question. If the purchaser does not authorize the procurement agency to reply to the question or the question matters exceed the scope of authorization, the agency shall hand over the question letter to the purchaser within 1 working day.

(3) Standardize the work of questioning and investigation.The purchaser and the procurement agency shall examine the questioned matters article by article. Where the supplier raises questions about the procurement documents, the purchaser and the procurement agency may organize the relevant purchaser and professional and technical personnel to demonstrate the questions, and may solicit the opinions of the relevant supplier. If the purchaser or procurement agency needs to verify the relevant facts, it may notify the questioning supplier, relevant supplier and review expert to verify according to law.

(4) Standardize the service of challenge replies.The purchaser and the procurement agency shall, within 7 working days after receiving the letter of challenge, reply in writing to the questions one by one and provide relevant supporting materials, and reply to the questions in a timely and comprehensive manner. The response results shall be received on the spot, mailed, faxed and other appropriate ways. If necessary, the response results can be communicated with the supplier on the spot and by telephone. In case of direct service, the receiving party shall be required to sign and receive the return certificate of service; If it is served by mail, it shall save the mail stub and print the mail service details for archiving.

(5) Standardize the internal control management of question reply.The purchaser and the centralized procurement agency shall improve the internal control system of the question reply, realize the separation of the question reply post and the operation and execution post, and further improve the question reply mechanism. The purchaser and the procurement agency shall establish a file management system for questioning and reply, and consciously accept the supervision and inspection carried out by the relevant departments according to law.

　　3. good communication, establish a question reply for reference, mediation mechanism

The purchaser and procurement agency shall upload the question reply to the government procurement project file for reference through the government procurement intelligent cloud platform. The purchaser should give full play to the main role, establish a questioning mediation mechanism, organize questioning suppliers and relevant suppliers to conduct face-to-face cross-examination and mediation according to needs, do a good job in organization and coordination, and try to resolve disputes in the questioning stage to avoid rising to complaints.

The provincial Department of Finance will strengthen supervision and inspection, establish a regular notification system, and regularly notify the provincial budget units of their questions and answers, questions and answers that are not responsible for causing conflicts and disputes. To carry out special inspections, to the purchaser, procurement agency in violation of the provisions of this notice, the question answer is not due diligence, by the provincial Department of Finance to take interviews, written concerns and other ways to order rectification, inform the competent budget unit, and as appropriate on the Guangdong provincial government procurement website announcement; If the case is serious or refuses to correct, the relevant clues shall be handed over to discipline inspection, supervision and audit departments for handling.

　　Guangdong Provincial Department of Finance

　　March 23, 2023