Southern Africa Development Community Secretariat – Procurement and Grants Policy Article 21. Open Bidding (1) This shall be the preferred method to be used for procurement of goods and works. (2) The open procedure involves an open invitation to submit a bid in a competitive bidding process to all interested economic operators. (3) Under the open bidding procedure, any economic operator wishing to bid for the advertised contract receives, upon request, the Bidding Documents (which may have to be paid for), in accordance with the procedures laid down in the procurement notice. No short listing or other form of pre-selection shall be conducted in the application of this method. (4) An economic operator and his affiliates, shall submit only one bid for the same contract on its own or as member of a joint venture/consortium. For this purpose affiliates are defined as: any natural person or legal entity (i.e.: companies, firms, associations, etc) or group thereof in which the economic operator or any of the major shareholders of the economic operator owns at least twenty percent (20%) of the shares or the share capital. For the same purpose, major shareholder shall be defined as: any legal or physical person who owns no less than twenty percent (20%) of the shares or the share capital of the economic operator. If an economic operator deliberately or inadvertently submits more than one application per contract, he shall be automatically disqualified from any SADC Secretariat procurement processes for a period indicated in the SADC Secretariat’s Procurement Regulations. (5) All bids received are examined by conducting a comparison of technical and financial proposal against the evaluation and award criteria. (6) For the bid recommended to be awarded the contract, an additional assessment of the bidder compliance with the post qualification criteria shall be conducted. (7) The contract shall be awarded to the bidder whose bid, after the application of the evaluation and award criteria, was recommended for the award of the contract, if it satisfies the post qualification criteria. (8) The open bidding shall have the following methods for application: a) International Open Bidding: The method shall be applied for the procurement of large and/or complex goods and works. The application of the method shall follow the requirements stated in the paragraph (1) to (6) of this Article. Under this method the pre qualification must be announced internationally. b) Regional Open Bidding: The method shall be applied for procurement, goods and works of smaller values (threshold to be set in the Procurement Regulations). Under this method, the prequalification must be announced regionally (SADC countries). c) Local Open Bidding: The method shall be applied for procurement of goods and works of small value (threshold to be set in the Procurement Regulations). Under this method, the prequalification must be announced locally (in the country were the contract will be implemented). Article 22. Restricted Bidding (1) This is a competitive procurement procedure through a pre selection (short listing). (2) In a restricted procedure, all economic operators may be asked to take part but only applicants satisfying the eligibility and qualification criteria may submit a bid. 18