ECOWAS Tenders Code Without prejudice to any conditions spelt out in this Tenders Code, any candidate whether a natural person or a legal entity is eligible to participate in the contracting process with the Community or its Institutions. Article 17: Exclusions from Contracting Process 1. The following candidates are excluded from entering into a contract with the Community or its Institutions: a) Any candidate that is insolvent, in receivership, bankrupt or being wound up, or whose business activities have been suspended; b) Any candidate, whether a natural person or a legal entity found to be in violation of any provisions of this Code or the Procurement Manual; c) Any person or legal entity whose administrators or directors have been convicted of a criminal offence or have been found to be in violation of a tax law unless rehabilited; d) Any candidate who has been a subject of a contract termination by reason of default or negligence in the execution of an earlier contract awarded by the Community Institutions; e) Any candidate who in the past five 5 years preceding the beginning of the contracting proceedings, was temporarily excluded from participating in any public contracting proceedings pursuant to a decision rendered by the Sanctions Committee, or any other national, foreign or international organisation, on grounds of misrepresentation in relation to a false statement as to their qualifications to enter into a public contract; f) Any contractor or consultant blacklisted and/or barred from taking part in public contracting in a foreign country by an international organization or other foreign institution on grounds of fraud or corruption; g) Any State owned company not financially and legally autonomous; and h) Any candidate in which any member of the procuring entity has a financial or personal interest. 2. In pursuance of Community human and financial capacity development in ECOWAS, foreign firms that do not enter into joint venture agreement with Member States’ firms shall not be eligible to participate in the tender where the contract is wholly financed by Community Funds. 3. The above provisions shall also apply to natural or legal persons acting as sub-contractors to the main contractors. Article 18: Disqualification of Bidders 1) The procuring ent it y shall reject a bid, proposal or quotation if it is found that the candidate or bidder has directly or indirectly made an offer of an inducement to any member of the procuring entity in connection with the contracting proceedings. 2) Such rejection and the reasons thereof, shall be included in the record of the procurement proceedings and duly communicated to the candidate or bidder who may file for review of the rejection under the provisions of Articles 83 and 84 of this Code. Final Page 10