Mandatory criteria and qualification criteria: how to know whether you qualify

What is the difference between mandatory and desirable criteria?

Mandatory criteria (ska-krav) and desirable criteria (bör-krav) appear in almost every set of tender documents. According to the National Agency for Public Procurement (Upphandlingsmyndigheten), a mandatory criterion is a minimum level that every tender must reach. If you do not meet it, the tender is out, however good it is otherwise.

A desirable criterion is in practice an award criterion. You do not have to meet it, but it affects the evaluation. It can earn points, a deduction from the comparison price or a better ranking. Read more about how it is calculated in the guide on lowest price or best price-quality ratio.

Qualification criteria are always minimum criteria and are never part of the evaluation. A company that clears the turnover criterion by a wide margin gets no extra points for it.

What can an authority set qualification criteria on?

LOU chapter 14, section 1 limits qualification criteria to three areas. Everything the authority asks of the company itself must fit into one of them.

• Authorisation to pursue the professional activity, for example registration in a professional or trade register.
• Economic and financial standing (chapter 14, sections 3–4), for example turnover, credit rating or liability insurance.
• Technical and professional ability (chapter 14, section 5), for example reference assignments, trained staff, machinery or quality and environmental management systems such as ISO 9001 and ISO 14001.

Besides the qualification criteria, the authority checks grounds for exclusion (uteslutningsgrunder), for example unpaid taxes or certain offences. They are not qualification criteria, but they also stop the tender from going further.

How high can a turnover criterion be?

Under LOU chapter 14, section 4, a criterion for annual turnover may not be higher than twice the estimated value of the contract, unless there are special reasons. A contract worth SEK 3 million therefore normally gives a turnover criterion of at most SEK 6 million. If the criterion is higher, the authority must be able to justify it.

Check which year the criterion refers to. Often it is the most recently closed financial year, sometimes an average over several years. A company that has grown quickly can meet the criterion one way but not the other.

How old can reference assignments be?

LOU chapter 15, section 11 sets the frame: for works contracts the authority may ask for references up to five years back, for goods and services up to three years back. Read exactly how the tender documents phrase it. Often the assignment must have been completed within the time window, sometimes it is enough that it was ongoing.

Also check how similar the assignment must be: size in kronor or square metres, type of client, and whether the reference person must be reachable. A reference that falls one month outside the window does not count.

What is the ESPD and when is it needed?

The ESPD, the European Single Procurement Document, is a standardised self-declaration that the company should not be excluded and that it meets the qualification criteria. The form is set out in Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/7. Above the thresholds, the authority must accept the ESPD as preliminary evidence. The evidence itself, such as annual accounts or certificates, is normally requested only from the supplier that is to be awarded the contract.

This means you can submit a tender with an ESPD, but you must be able to produce the documents when the authority asks. Ticking a box saying you meet a criterion you cannot prove is a bigger problem than not bidding.

How do I check a set of tender documents quickly?

Do not start with the specification or with the price annex. Start with the criteria for the company, because they decide whether the rest of the reading is worth it. What each document in the tender pack contains is described in the guide on reading tender documents.

1. Search every document, including annexes, for the Swedish words "ska", "skall", "måste", "krav" and "obligatorisk".
2. List the qualification criteria: turnover, credit rating, certificates, references, authorisations, insurance.
3. Compare each criterion with your current figures and documents, with dates.
4. Check certificate validity against the tender deadline, not against today's date.
5. Then read the mandatory criteria in the specification and see whether you can deliver them.
6. Only when all of the above holds: read the evaluation model and start working on price.

Which traps are most common?

• Criteria in annexes. A mandatory criterion can sit in a draft contract, a specification or an annex on environmental criteria, not only in the main document.
• Certificates that expire. An ISO certificate that expires the week before the tender deadline is not enough, unless it is renewed in time.
• Wrong time window for references. Three years for services, five years for works contracts, counted as the tender documents state.
• Criteria that apply to subcontractors. Sometimes subcontractors must also meet certain criteria, and sometimes you can rely on the capacity of others. Read what applies.
• Changes during the tender period. Answers to questions and corrections can add or change criteria. Read every published question and answer.

Checklist: do we qualify?

• Turnover for the latest financial year meets the criterion (and the criterion is at most 2× the contract value, or justified).
• We pass the credit rating or other financial check.
• Every required certificate is valid on the tender deadline.
• We have enough reference assignments of the right type and size within the time window.
• The reference persons have been asked and can be reached.
• Required authorisations, registrations and insurance are in place.
• No grounds for exclusion: taxes and charges are paid.
• The ESPD is filled in and every ticked box can be backed by documents.
• No mandatory criteria in annexes or in questions and answers have been missed.

How can Procura help?

Procura is a Swedish service that shows suppliers which public tenders they qualify for and, where the price has been published, what similar contracts were awarded for. You enter certificates, turnover, reference assignments and staffing once. Procura reads the procurement's criteria and gives one of three verdicts: qualified, qualified with gaps or disqualified, and always names the criterion that blocks you. Hard criteria are judged by fixed rules against your profile, and AI can never change a "not met". You can try a single procurement in the free tender analysis or read how it works.

Sources

• Swedish Public Procurement Act (2016:1145), riksdagen.se: chapter 14, sections 1 and 3–5, chapter 15, section 11
• Upphandlingsmyndigheten: guidance on criteria, mandatory criteria, desirable criteria and the ESPD
• Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/7 on the ESPD, EUR-Lex