What is a tender specification in a Belgian public contract, and who writes it?

What it is, and who writes it

In a Belgian public contract, the tender specifications are the document in which the contracting authority describes the works, the supply or the service, and the conditions for bidding and for carrying the contract out. The authority writes them and provides them. The company that wants to bid does not: it submits a tender.

Article 2, 43°, of the law of 17 June 2016 on public procurement places the special specifications, the cahier spécial des charges, among the procurement documents: “any document applicable to the contract provided by the contracting authority or to which it refers”. The same point adds that a descriptive document includes, among other things, the technical specifications, the proposed contract conditions, and the formats in which candidates and tenderers present their papers. The law is published in French and Dutch. The sentence in quotation marks is our English rendering of the French text. French text: https://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/eli/loi/2016/06/17/2016021053/justel Dutch text: https://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/eli/wet/2016/06/17/2016021053/justel

The Flemish government page on drawing up a bestek, written for local authorities, says the same thing from the buyer’s side. The authority turns a need into a question to the market. The bestek is the basic document of the contract, with the particular clauses for the award and for performance. Page: https://www.vlaanderen.be/lokaal-bestuur/overheidsopdrachten/opmaak-bestek

What it usually contains

The law does not publish one table of contents that is the same for every buyer. The Flemish page lists the parts that are usual in a local authority’s bestek: a regulatory part (how the price is set and which price elements count, the deadline and how to submit, selection criteria, clauses on lots, variants and options where there are any, and award criteria), administrative and contractual clauses, a detailed technical description, a tender form with the summary bill of quantities for works or the inventory for supplies and services, then plans or other annexes.

Article 2, 7° and 8°, of the royal decree of 18 April 2017 on the award of public contracts in the classical sectors defines the summary bill of quantities, in a works contract, and the inventory, in a supplies or services contract: the procurement document that splits the work into items and states, for each item, the quantity or the way the price is determined. That reading follows the French text of the decree.

Article 81, § 3, of the law says the award criteria must be stated in the contract notice or in another procurement document. Article 71 says selection criteria may concern the ability to pursue the professional activity, economic and financial standing, and technical and professional ability. Article 58, § 1, says that, where the contract is awarded in lots, the buyer sets their nature, volume, subject, division and characteristics in the procurement documents, and states in the notice whether a tender may be submitted for one lot, for several lots or for all lots. How many lots one company may bid for is explained in the guide https://aoex.be/en/guides/belgian-ted-notice-in-lots

Article 9, § 4, of the royal decree of 14 January 2013 laying down the general rules for the performance of public contracts says that certain departures from those rules must be formally justified in the special specifications. Without that justification, the departure is deemed unwritten. Texts, in the French consolidation we read: https://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/eli/arrete/2017/04/18/2017020322/justel https://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/eli/arrete/2013/01/14/2013021005/justel

Where to find it

Article 64, § 1, of the law of 17 June 2016 says that, from the date the contract notice is published, the contracting authority offers free, unrestricted, full and direct electronic access to the procurement documents. The text of the notice states the internet address at which those documents can be reached. If the notice does not publish that address, it is not published. This page does not invent one.

BOSA’s English page on e-Procurement, last updated on 9 August 2024, says the platform lets a company access a public contract or submit it electronically, and that a company looks for contracts in the Tender Bulletin. The address of that platform is https://www.publicprocurement.be English page: https://bosa.belgium.be/en/applications/e-procurement The French page of the same note, updated on 24 January 2025, adds that the Bulletin des Adjudications does not contain every public contract: sometimes the buyer invites the company directly. French page: https://bosa.belgium.be/fr/applications/e-procurement The address of the procurement documents remains the one the notice states. It may open a workspace on that platform, or another address the notice publishes.

For the classical sectors, article 8, § 1, of the royal decree of 18 April 2017 says that a contract subject to European publicity is published in the Official Journal of the European Union and in the Belgian Bulletin of Invitations to Tender. TED is the electronic edition of that Official Journal, the S series: https://ted.europa.eu/en/simap/european-public-procurement Above the European thresholds, the TED notice also states the address of the documents. The amounts of those thresholds are not repeated here.

TED does not contain the small Belgian contracts below the European thresholds, unless the buyer also sends the notice to the Official Journal. The same article 8 publishes a contract that is subject only to Belgian publicity in the Bulletin of Invitations to Tender. Without that extra sending, the notice is not on TED. Where those Belgian contracts are published is explained here: https://aoex.be/en/guides/markets-not-on-ted

How to recognise the file a TED notice already publishes, and what that file is not, is a different guide: https://aoex.be/en/guides/what-a-specification-is This page does not repeat that reading.

Asking the buyer a question

A question about the tender specifications goes to the address the notice publishes for additional information: a service, an email address, or the document workspace. Article 64, § 2, of the law says the buyer provides that information at the latest six days before the deadline for receipt of tenders, if the request was made in time. The law does not publish one calendar day, the same for every notice, by which the question must be sent.

The four-day period in an accelerated procedure, and what to do when the notice itself publishes a date for questions, are explained in the guide https://aoex.be/en/guides/ask-the-buyer-before-a-belgian-ted-deadline This page does not calculate a day. AOEX does not send the question.

What to check before you bid

Before you decide to bid, read in the tender specifications the object and the technical description, the selection criteria, the award criteria stated in the notice or in the documents, the deadline, where to submit, and, if there are lots, the rules in the notice and in the documents. A field the notice or the specifications do not publish stays unknown.

That reading does not say whether the company will be awarded the contract. AOEX does not draft the specifications, does not submit the tender and does not contact the buyer. The text to follow remains the official notice and the procurement documents.

This page gives general information. It is not legal advice.