20/01/2011 - Since 1 January 2008, the Contract Advisory Centre Hesse has pre-qualified Hessian enterprises in respect of their reliability, expertise and capability in regard of public contracts and list them in the Hessian Pre-Qualifications Register HPQR in order to be reviewed by public entities. Thereby, the suitability of companies which want to provide construction works, supplies or services for the public sector will be recorded and confirmed quickly.

The Contract Advisory Centres examines the supporting documents yearly and certificate them. So far, the contracting entity, using the certificate number, that is communicated in the tender, can review the individual proofs of this web-based pre-qualifications register only for a specific tender procedure. From now on, the Contract Advisory Centre Hesse extends the service to another function. The search function for public entities is now going to be enabled at any time. With it, the database gets an additional value. Especially in advance of a tendering procedure, suitable companies can be detected. This is increasingly interesting for restricted tenders and negotiated contracts, as the contracting authority has to be informed about the suitability of the new company before the invitation to tender.

Through an online application, the public entity receives a user name and password after identifying itself as a contracting authority clearly. Thus, the permanent access to all individual documents of all listed companies will be created.

The Hessian Procurement Decree of 1 November 2010 (Paragraph 1.1.2) reaffirms that the HPQR certificate for procurement procedures must be approved as a pre-qualification according to the procurement regulations nation-wide. As it is commented in § 6 para 3 No 2 VOB/A/1: "The retrieval of supporting documents by the association for prequalification of contractors is one form of a qualification proof and does not exclude proofs by other equivalent registers (including other EU Member States HPQR, particular standard, see also the No. 6)." The Hessian Pre-Qualifications Register HPQR always considers the win-win effect for public entities and tenderers to be central. The pre-qualification is economical because the procedure is part of an integrated system that is supported by the idea of reducing bureaucracy. The register waives - as the decree requests - an overload of supporting documents and excessive demands on the form of proofs. Primarily, it represents a simplification tool and not another seal of approval or quality for companies and craft enterprises.

The HPQR has transparent costs. The initial certification costs € 215 gross lump sum, the extension 50 € less. Usually self-declarations are sufficient, in a few cases, copies of originals are required. The Hessian pre-qualification certificates contract-independent criteria laid down in the procurement regulations and required by public entities regularly. This reduces the risk for companies to be excluded from the tendering procedure because of missing documents. In addition, it saves time and money not to submit supporting documents repeatedly. Companies that provide supplies and services are included in the nationwide pre-qualification database PQ-VOL. This also widens the circle of public entities that are looking for suitable companies to the whole of Germany.

Conclusion: The HPQR is a pioneer like other pre-qualification centres and is fighting for the approvement by the public sector and the tenderers. The aim must be to discover PQ systems as a user-friendly and profitable tool at the market. That doesn't work without the concerned persons for whom it was created. In addition, the HPQR is installed as a regional pre-qualification, which primarily meet the needs of regional businesses and contracting authorities. It wants to support especially small and medium-sized enterprises in public procurement.