There is no place for creativity in public procurement

We successfully represented the Estonian strategic design agency Identity in contesting the outcome of the public procurement “Developing an Integrated Marketing Strategy for Visiting, Living and the Business Environment in Lääne-Viru County”, organised by MTÜ Lääne-Viru Municipalities Union.

Legitimate assessment

The main issue in the dispute was the tender evaluation, that is, the number of points given to the client’s offer. Although an assessment of the quality of creative work is already to a certain extent subjective in nature, the criteria set out in the procurement documents must be followed, and the decision substantiated.

The Public Procurement Review Committee agreed that in this case the contracting authority had not followed the predetermined criteria when assessing the tender. The contracting authority had not legitimately assessed the client’s offer in terms of its vision. The committee also found that, taking into account the reasons provided by the contracting authority and the description of the assessment methodology, the contracting authority did not justify the number of points assigned to the client’s tender in accordance with the assessment criteria and other procurement documents. Thus, the Review Committee found that the decision of the contracting authority was not justifiable and therefore annulled the decision of the contracting authority which declared the tender of a third party successful.

Well-known agency

Identity is a strategic design agency that combines strategic planning, brand creation, service design and graphic design solutions in a unique way to create a functional, competitive, robust and holistic mix. The team have more than 25 years of experience and have created over 200 brand concepts, including for well-known names such as Nortal, Bauhof, IIZI, Levira, Cinamon, Arigato, Bosse, Sparta, Thermory, Solaris, Capital Mill, Retro FM, Lyon, Arcwood, etc.

Our services and client team

We advised Identity on all legal issues related to contesting the outcome of the public procurement and represented the client in a dispute before the Public Procurement Review Committee.

The client was represented before the Review Committee by senior associates Gerli Helene Gritsenko and Mario Sõrm.