The Supreme court of the Russian Federation figured out what documents can be requested to assess the business reputation in public procurement
The bidder complained about the order of evaluation of applications in the documentation. For the analysis of the indicator "business reputation" the customer demanded to provide a copy of the certificate issued in accordance with GOST. Its validity was confirmed by the data of one of the two voluntary certification systems named in the documentation.
The Supervisory authority and the district court recognized that this evaluation procedure limits the number of bidders. The argument was as follows:
the notice is published seven days before the request for proposals, and this time is not enough to get a certificate;
the client specified two specific voluntary certification systems, although data from systems developed by other organizations could be used to evaluate applications;
the presence of a certificate does not mean that the participant has a higher level of qualification or can offer better conditions for the execution of the contract.
The Supreme court thought otherwise. Submission of a copy of the certificate issued in accordance with GOST Was not a prerequisite for participation in the request for proposals. It was one of the criteria for evaluating participants. None of them was denied participation due to the fact that the certificate was not presented.
The Supreme court also noted:
the Supervisory authority did not prove that the choice of two specific voluntary certification systems limited competition;
the absence of a certificate from the participant on the date of publication of the notice does not mean that it can not be required.
Document: Definition of armed forces of the Russian Federation of 18.11.2019 N 307-ES19-12629