Southern Africa Development Community Secretariat – Procurement and Grants Policy (5) The value of the each Multiple Framework Contract shall be determined based on the estimated annual value of specific group of recurrent services, goods and works needed by the organization as reflected in the specific annual budgetary allocation. (6) In a multiple framework contract, the contract will be awarded to a minimum of three and a maximum of 5 framework contractors, who will be invited to participate every time the Contracting Authority has a need covered by the contract. The framework contractors invited to submit offers will do so through a simple procedure and the Procuring Entity will award the contract to the best bidder. The Procuring entity may, depending on the framework agreed, either invite all the framework contractors to submit an offer or randomly pick a minimum of three. (7) Only in exceptional justified cases the Procuring Entity may award a framework contract to less than three entities. (8) The aggregated total sum off the awarded Multiple Framework Contract shall not exceed the total budget foreseen. Article 28. Procurement procedure under Single Framework Contracts (1) The principle is the same as for Multiple Framework Contracts but only one contract is awarded to the best bidder according to award criteria previously established. (2) This type of contract is used when the specifications are well defined and will not change for the duration of the contract. (3) The aggregated total sum of the awarded Single Framework Contract shall not exceed the total budget foreseen. (4) The duration of Single Framework contracts will be no longer than two (2) years. CHAPTER III. PROCUREMENT PROCEEDINGS SECTION I. BIDDING PROCEEDINGS Article 29. Publication a. The Procuring entity shall advertise all the contracts by appropriate means respecting the principles of transparency and open competition. Procurement notices must be advertised in advance. A decision to award a contract must be advertised before contracting. b. The publication may be international, regional or local depending on the procurement method and the thresholds established in the Procurement Regulations. c. The Procurement Regulations will specify the publication requisites. Article 30. Invitation to bid and access to bidding documents (1) When the open procedure is used, all interested economic operators shall have unrestricted access to the bidding documents. 24