What is OJEU?

You may have wondered why public sector organisations are so wedded to carrying out bureaucratic tender processes. There are several reasons but the root reason is to ensure fairness and transparency in how they spend their millions of pounds worth of our money.

The requirement to be fair and transparent is now enshrined in EU legislation as well as in the financial regulations that each organisation must have.

'Under EU legislation all contracts from the public sector which are valued above a certain threshold must be published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU, formerly the OJEC).

'The legislation covers organisations and projects which receive public money. Local authorities, NHS trusts, Central Government Departments, Port Authorities are all covered by the legislation and must advertise in OJEU if their contract is covered. Some privately funded / managed contracts will also be covered - if a project is in receipt of more than 50% public funds, it would also be covered by the EU legislation (e.g. the Lowry Centre in Manchester and the Millennium Dome).

'The term 'Journal' is misleading, as production of the hard copy version ceased in 1997. It can now be accessed on CD ROM or via intermediaries such as Tenders Direct.

'Around 2500 new notices are advertised every week - invitations to tender, pre information notices, qualification systems and contract award notices from over 80 countries world - wide. Around 10% of these are from the UK and Ireland.' (Explanation taken from www.ojec.com) Details on thresholds and other relevant information can be found on the OJEC website.

Daily listings of tender opportunities across Europe can be found on ted.europa.eu - select your language and... start searching for opportunities.