Barcelona City Council uses this form of procurement as it is designed to simplify procedures and reduce related costs. Framework agreements are awarded through public competitions that set out the conditions governing contracts during a specified period between the contract-winning company and the City Council and its related companies and bodies. This type of contract is regularly used for the procurement of services which vary according to the needs of the administration and which consequently cannot be quantified in advance.
What is a framework agreement?
A framework agreement sets out a series of conditions or common terms with a company or with various companies, which then apply to all contracts based on the agreement. When the public administration, in this case the City Council, needs the services set out in the framework agreement, it generates a contract based on these conditions.
Framework agreements also affect the whole of the City Council, as well as the institutes, public companies and other bodies linked to it, meaning equal conditions for the entire municipal ecosystem.
How are framework agreements established?
A framework agreement requires a tendering process, with a set of regulating clauses and a public competition open to companies interested in providing the service. The clauses set out the requisites which must be met by companies and the conditions which will govern the contracts made while framework agreement is valid, meaning conditions such as prices and quality of service cannot be altered.
Contracts tendered by Barcelona City Council, including framework agreements, are assessed by a specially designated procurement committee. The committee is tasked with monitoring the whole procedure, evaluating the different offers and resolving the awarding of the corresponding contract. All these procedures are published on the City Council’s transparency website.
What are they for?
Framework agreements are used when the material or service to be procured cannot be quantified in advance as it varies according to needs, as is the case with some very specific supplies or services.
This type of contract is also used as it matches spending to the service contracted. In contrast to closed budgetary items, there is no need to use up all the allocated credit and spending is kept in line with the needs of the City Council.
What framework agreements does the City Council have?
This system is used for procuring services such as the supply of office furniture, drinking water dispensers, electricity and the linguistic correction and translation service.
If we take the specific case of the framework agreement for linguistic correction, translation services and linguistic and socio-linguistic advice, this was tendered for the first time in 2013. The second competition, which was won by Linguaserve Internacionalización de Servicios SA, came into effect on 2 February 2019 and is currently valid. The company presented the best offer and attained the best score among the various candidates. Since then, whenever any department, municipal institute or public company from the City Council needs linguistic correction or translation services, it contracts this company with the prices already established. These contracts are also published on the transparency website.