Public Procurement

Public Contracts Regulations 2015 - Regulation 83

Pedro Telles

06 Jul 2015 — 1 min read

Regulation 83 - Retention of contract copies

Regulation 83 marks the beginning of Chapter 4, the last chapter within Part 2 where most of the substantive procurement rules can be found. Therefore, the rules contained within this Regulation apply to all contracts/procedures mentioned so far.

According to Regulation 83, contracting authorities are supposed to keep copies of all contracts with a value equal or greater to 1,000,000 EUR (services and supply contracts) or 10,000,000 EUR (public works) "at least for the duration of the contract". It appears that in the day a contract ends all records can be destroyed, at least in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations.

It seems odd in this day and age to not impose a more ambitious "record keeping" objective. Why is it possible for a 9,999,999 EUR works contract to be done without proper records being kept? I suspect that internal audit obligations in most contracting authorities will probably ensure that lower value contracts are kept. Nonetheless, I am not sure that contracts below the aforementioned values will lead to the application of paragraph 2 on access to those contracts, although they would still be subject to Freedom of Information rules.

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