Bidding in Romania: questions foreign companies ask us

Run the eligibility self-check, then send us the tender for a free Go/No-Go snapshot, which includes an eligibility flag. Before we take a complete-file mandate for a company established outside the EU, we prepare an Eligibility & Readiness report (€3,400), reviewed and co-signed by a Romanian attorney.

Your company requests an economic-operator account on e-licitatie.ro, with company details and documents signed with a qualified electronic signature, and the platform operator validates it. Allow several working days, and never start in the week of a deadline. We prepare the file and run a test with you. It is free inside any mandate and €650 on its own.

A qualified electronic signature (QES) under the EU eIDAS Regulation, for each person who signs. Each consortium member, supporting third party and subcontractor signs its own documents.

A QES from any EU qualified trust service provider is valid across the EU, but test it in the platform before you depend on it. Signatures issued outside the EU are generally not qualified under eIDAS; we arrange an EU QES for your representative instead.

Yes, under a power of attorney that you control and can revoke. Binding documents are still signed by your authorised signatory, and you approve every commercial value. We never sign as the bidder.

Romanian: the bid, the ESPD, the forms, the clarifications and the contract. Some authorities accept technical data sheets in English, but only if the data sheet says so. We write the proposals directly in Romanian and give you English working copies to approve.

It is your self-declaration on exclusion grounds and selection criteria, completed in Romanian and submitted with the bid. You, each consortium member, each third party whose capacity you rely on and, where required, your subcontractors submit one. The supporting evidence is usually requested later from the best-ranked bidder, at short notice.

With the contracts, references, acceptance protocols or completion certificates the data sheet asks for, translated and, where required, certified. Values are converted at the exchange rate the data sheet specifies.

It depends on the qualification thresholds, the attestations required and your delivery model. The Go/No-Go memo recommends a structure, and we build the file so that each member covers exactly what it must.

A bid guarantee of at most 1% of the estimated value, and a performance guarantee of at most 10% of the contract price excluding VAT. Banks in Romania or abroad, and insurers authorised in the EU or registered with the Romanian Financial Supervisory Authority, can issue them. The wording must follow the authority's model exactly; we check it.

Usually in RON, excluding VAT, as the data sheet sets. Some procedures, notably those financed by international lenders, are priced in EUR.

The authority may ask you to justify an abnormally low price under article 210 of Law 98/2016. The justification must be independent and verifiable: supplier quotes, productivity data, cost build-ups. We prepare it with the financial proposal, not after the request.

It varies with the procedure, the number of bids and any complaints, which can add weeks. The invitation to sign comes after the standstill period. We give you a realistic timeline in the Go/No-Go memo.

You can take part in the proceedings to defend it: points of view, written conclusions, protection of confidential content, evidence. The deadline runs in days, so call us the day you are notified.

Possibly. Performing a Romanian public contract can trigger Romanian VAT registration, a permanent establishment, branch registration and posted-worker notifications. Check these points with your tax adviser early; we coordinate the procurement side.

For a complete tender file: a documentation fee from €4,900, plus a success fee due only when you are called to sign the contract (1.50% on the first €500,000 of your share, lower above, minimum €2,500). Or the Fixed plan: the documentation fee × 1.5 and no success fee. Romanian direct awards: Light offer from €890. All fees are published on the Pricing page.

When the contracting authority calls you to sign the contract, in writing, through SEAP, by email or otherwise. We invoice it on the date of the invitation, payable within 10 working days, in one instalment. The award notice alone does not trigger it.

If the contract is then not signed for reasons not attributable to you, such as annulment by the CNSC or a court or cancellation by the authority, we refund the success fee in full within 10 working days. It becomes due again only if you are later called to sign in the same procedure. It stays due if you refuse to sign or do not provide the performance guarantee.

Choose the Fixed plan, with no success fee. Alternatively, fix the success fee as an amount at mandate: a known, capped figure for documented work, which can only go down. Every success-fee invoice comes with a log of the work delivered, and the basis of our fee can be disclosed to the contracting authority on request.

We do not make one-off discounts, because our fees are the same for every client with the same scope. Published rules lower them: returning client, bundles, annual programme, multi-lot, re-bid and retainers, up to 25% of the documentation fee.

No one honestly can. The award belongs to the contracting authority and depends on competition. We answer for a compliant, coherent file submitted on time, and we tell you before you start what could disqualify you. If your bid is rejected for a formal error attributable to us, the Compliant File Guarantee refunds the documentation fee.

No, and we would not try. Our fees pay for documented work, never for access or influence. Questions to the authority go through the platform, in writing, where every bidder sees the answers.

It would be if the mandates overlapped. We check every intake, keep the two sides in separate files with separate access, and never act for a bidder in a procedure we prepared or evaluated for the authority. If that is the case for your tender, we tell you we cannot act.

An NDA before any document is exchanged, a restricted document space, processing under the GDPR with data kept in the EU, and a data processing agreement. Your documents are used only for your mandates.

Yes. Companies with their own bid team often use us for SEAP registration and e-signatures, the ESPD and qualification file, translations and apostilles, a pre-submission check, the financial proposal or remedies.

Immediately after the conflict check and the NDA, usually within one working day. When a deadline is already running, the Go/No-Go and the document vault run in parallel from day one. With fewer than 7 working days left, an urgency surcharge applies.