Statens og Kommunernes Indkøbs Service A/S (or SKI for short or in English: National Procurement Ltd. Denmark) establishes framework contracts between the public sector in Denmark and private sector companies. SKI is a not-for-profit and self-financing public company owned by the Danish state (The Danish Ministry of Finance) and the interest group and member authority of Danish municipalities Local Government Denmark (in Danish: Kommunernes Landsforening). It is SKI’s aim to promote effective public purchasing in Denmark.

SKI is specifically mentioned as a ‘contracting authority’ in the EU directive concerning “Public works contracts, public supply contracts and public service contracts”. SKI is therefore able to act as a ‘central purchasing body’ which is a contracting authority that is able to award public contracts or conclude framework agreements for works, supplies or services intended for other contracting authorities.

The goods and services that Danish public organisations purchase through SKI must be acquired through a framework agreement that has been through a process of tender. The reason for this is that the European Union directive regarding public procurement demands that contracts over a certain threshold value must be put through a process of tender. This helps to ensure competition and prevent corruption in the European Union (EU).

The process of tender is conducted within a very strict legal framework that has been set up by the EU. Tenders that SKI prepare are, as all other EU-tenders, published on the website Tenders Electronic Daily at this URL: http://ted.europa.eu/

SKI uses an electronic tendering system ETHICS for the tender process.

Any company can take part in the tender process as long as the company is able to supply one or more of the goods or services that will be sold as a result of the framework agreement. However, there is no guarantee that a company which makes an offer in a tender process will be chosen as a supplier. Only the companies with the lowest price or the economically most advantageous offer will be confirmed as suppliers.

Making an offer on a SKI-tender does not entail the payment of any fees by the company involved. However, the process of making an offer does involve filling in a number of questionnaires and so forth. This process can be quite time-consuming and hence potentially costly.

After the tender process a number of suppliers are chosen – again following very strict guidelines – as suppliers to the SKI framework agreement. A framework agreement has a typical duration of from two to four years and after the expiration of the framework agreement SKI will consider whether this agreement should be put out to tender again or not.

To sum up: Owing to the very strict rules governing public procurement in the EU we at SKI are unfortunately not able simply to register a company as a supplier to the Danish public sector. To become a framework agreement supplier through a SKI contract a company must make an offer in relation to a SKI-tender.