Burgi, Martin; Pohlmann, Marinus --- "Disclosure rules within public procurement procedures and during contract period - German country report" [2019] ELECD 1363; in Halonen, Kirsi-Maria; Caranta, Roberto; Sanchez-Graells, Albert (eds), "Transparency in EU Procurements" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 177

Book Title: Transparency in EU Procurements

Editor(s): Halonen, Kirsi-Maria; Caranta, Roberto; Sanchez-Graells, Albert

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Section: Chapter 9

Section Title: Disclosure rules within public procurement procedures and during contract period - German country report

Author(s): Burgi, Martin; Pöhlmann, Marinus

Number of pages: 24

Abstract/Description:

In Germany the access to information is regulated by the Freedom of Information Act as general law as well as in the Administrative Procedure Act. In principle the access to information is granted to everyone, but under the Administrative Procedure Act access is granted only to the parties of an administrative procedure. However, both of these general laws are superseded by the special regulation of confidentiality within the public procurement law. Public procurement law sets out duties for contracting authorities on different mandatory instruments for transparency, such as the publication of contract notices, award notices and contract amendments. There are special rules on access to information during a judicial review procedure, providing the parties to the review with the possibility to effectively challenge a public procurement matter. In Germany there is no special, central authority responsible for collecting all procurement information and overall the access to tender information is limited during and after the procurement procedure due to the need to protect business secrets and to avoid competition distortions.