A contract for provision of IT services for the Greek Social Security Foundation has come under Commission scrutiny following complaints of discrimination and unfair treatment.
The call for tender required bidders to provide references of projects that they had successfully implemented in Greece. According to EU case law, contracting authorities are not allowed to impose local preference conditions which cause direct or indirect discrimination towards non-domestic potential bidders.
Furthermore, the bidders were prevented from relying on the experience of their potential sub-contractors in order to fulfil the selection criteria, contrary to what is expressly permitted under EU procurement law.
The Commission sent Greece a reasoned opinion on 27 October 2011, and has given the authorities two months to respond.
