Legal Update: E-Complaints for Procurements in Turkey

A new e-filing system has been established for complaints through Turkish Public Procurement Authority’s (“Procurement Authority”) Electronic Public Procurement Platform (“EKAP”). The launch of the e-filing aims to prevent the loss of rights resulted from procedural mistakes in in-person/in mail applications. In the announcement published on the official website of the Procurement Authority on April 29, 2020, it was stated that a training video and guidelines were published regarding the process. Accordingly, tenderers should assign one or more people to the role of e-complaint officer after logging in to EKAP, and make their complaint using e-signature on the platform with scan of the following documents attached to the complaint:

i.   The document indicating the representation (related trade registry gazette information or power of attorney) as per Article 8 of the Regulation on Applications for Procurements,

ii.   For the applications on the announcement and prequalification of procurements or on procurement documents, the document indicating the tenderer’s activity in the subject area of the procurement (union of chamber of merchants and craftsmen registration document) or information regarding such document (relevant trade registry gazette information),

iii.  In the complaint applications to be made on behalf of a joint venture, the joint venture declaration or contract; for applications to be made by a private partner, a document showing that the private partner has been authorized to represent as per Article 8 of the Regulation on Applications for Procurements, provided that the mentioned documents were not included in the proposal envelope. In this context, since the joint venture declaration in e-procurements is created by using e-signature via EKAP, the lead partner will be able to issue an e-complaint application on behalf of the joint venture without adding this document to the e-complaint application.

Deniz Çelikkaya