Nextica for the Public Sector: bidding, challenging and getting paid

Before bidding: tender documents, standing and registers

Reading the tender documents with the calendar in front of you, the ESPD, evidence of technical and financial standing, and preparing the corrections that almost always follow. Registration and upkeep in the national ROLECE and in the Catalan RELI, plus contractor classification where the contract requires it (art. 77 of Law 9/2017 and the Regulation approved by RD 1098/2001, mandatory for works from an estimated value of €500,000). Where the contract can only be reached jointly with another company, the UTE is set up under Law 18/1982 and the internal agreement that nobody usually writes is drafted: shares, contributions, governance and joint liability towards the contracting authority. And one review that saves grief: the bans on contracting in art. 71 of Law 9/2017, because a final penalty or conviction can shut a company out of all public procurement.

When it goes wrong: the special appeal and the courts

Against the tender documents, an exclusion or an award in contracts subject to it, the special procurement appeal is available (arts. 44 ff. of Law 9/2017): fifteen working days, no fee, before the Central Administrative Tribunal for Contractual Appeals or, where the contracting authority is Catalan, before the Catalan Public Sector Contracts Tribunal. Appealing the award prevents the contract from being formalised while it is decided, which is what actually changes the outcome. Once administrative remedies are exhausted, judicial review under Law 29/1998 remains, and where the harm was caused by the administrative action itself, a State liability claim under art. 32 of Law 40/2015 through the procedure of Law 39/2015.

During performance: people, prices and balance

Winning the contract means inheriting its terms. Staff transfer imposed by the tender documents (art. 130 of Law 9/2017) forces you to budget for people whose terms you learn about late, and social clauses turn collective-agreement pay into a special performance condition. Then come modifications, penalties, acceptance and settlement. When the contract was won tight and the real cost rises, the lawful way out is not to stop performing: it is economic rebalancing and price revision, within the framework of Law 2/2015 on de-indexation of the Spanish economy and whatever the tender documents allow.

The money: getting invoices paid and grants justified

The invoice is filed electronically under Law 25/2013, and the authority has thirty days to pay it from approval of the documents evidencing conformity (art. 198.4 of Law 9/2017). Once that period passes, late-payment interest under Law 3/2004 accrues automatically, with no demand required: most companies never claim it because they do not know they already have it. And where the money comes not from an invoice but from aid —grants under Law 38/2003 and its Regulation (RD 887/2006), Next Generation funds and PERTE— the work starts with the application and ends with the supporting account, which is where it is decided whether a clawback letter arrives three years later.