Preisprüfung nur mit tragfähiger Auftragswertschätzung!

📝 Facts: A public contracting authority issued a call for tenders for quality assurance services for service phases 5 to 8 in the field of architecture. Two reference projects for new buildings with minimum construction costs of €50 million gross each were required as a minimum reference. Two bidders participated in the procedure, and their fee proposals differed significantly. One bidder challenged the suitability of the competitor because, according to market research, the competitor's references did not substantiate the required new construction costs. Furthermore, the bidder argued that the offer was insufficient. The contracting authority had accepted the references and based its price review, among other things, on its own fee and contract value estimates. 💡 Key Point of the Decision: The Public Procurement Chamber upheld the challenge. References that only show new construction and renovation costs as total costs are insufficient when references for new buildings with specific minimum construction costs are explicitly required. Furthermore, the contracting authority was not permitted to base the cost-effectiveness assessment pursuant to Section 60 Paragraph 2 of the German Procurement Ordinance (VgV) on an inadequate estimate of the contract value. The fee estimate contained deviations from the HOAI (German Fee Structure for Architects and Engineers) percentages that were not comprehensibly justified; for one requested service phase, no fee was even included. The contracting authority could not plausibly explain the calculation but had essentially adopted it without verification. Consequently, the procedure had to be reverted to the stage prior to the publication of the contract notice.