S.L. 601.7 Art. 34Time-limits for receipt of requests to participate and for receipt of tenders.

(1) When fixing the time-limits for receipt of requests to participate and tenders, contracting authorities or entities shall take particular account of the complexity of the contract and the time required for drawing up tenders, without prejudice to the minimum time-limits set by this regulation.

(2) In restricted procedures, negotiated procedures with the publication of a contract notice and use of a competitive dialogue, the minimum time-limit for receipt of requests to participate shall be thirty-seven days from the date on which the contract notice is sent.

(3) In the case of restricted procedures, the minimum time-limit for the receipt of tenders shall be forty days from the date on which the invitation is sent.

(4) When contracting authorities or entities have published a prior information notice, the minimum time-limit for the receipt of tenders under sub-regulation (3) may, as a general rule, be shortened to thirty-six days, but under no circumstances to less than twenty-two days.

The time-limit shall run from the date on which the invitation to tender was sent.

(5) The shortened time-limits referred to in sub-regulation (1) shall be permitted, provided that the prior information notice has included all the information required for the contract notice set out in Schedule III, insofar as that information is available at the time the notice is published and that the prior information notice was sent for publication between fifty-two days and twelve months before the date on which the contract notice was sent.

(6) Where notices are drawn up and transmitted by electronic means in accordance with the format and procedure for sending notices set out in point 3 of Schedule V, the time-limit for the receipt of the requests to participate referred to in sub-regulation

(2) may be shortened by seven days.

(7) The time-limits for receipt of tenders referred to in sub-regulation (3) may be reduced by five days where the contracting authority or entity offers unrestricted and full direct access by electronic means to the contract documents and any supporting documents from the date of publication of the notice in accordance with Schedule V, specifying in the text of the notice the internet address at which this documentation is accessible. This reduction may be added to that referred to in sub-regulation (6).

(8) If, for whatever reason, the contract documents and supporting documents or additional information, although requested in good time, are not supplied within the time-limits set out in regulation 35, or where tenders can be made only after a visit to the site or after on-the-spot inspection of the documents supporting the contract documents, the time-limits for the receipt of tenders shall be extended so that all economic operators concerned may be aware of all the information needed to produce tenders.

(9) In the case of restricted procedures and negotiated procedures with publication of a contract notice, where urgency renders impracticable the minimum time-limits laid down in this regulation, contracting authorities or entities may fix:

(a) a time-limit for receipt of requests to participate which may not be less than fiften days from the date on which the contract notice is dispatched, or less than ten days if the notice was sent by electronic means, in accordance with the format and procedure for sending notices set out in point 3 of Schedule V; and

(b) in the case of restricted procedures, a time-limit for receipt of tenders which shall not be less than ten days from the date of the invitation to tender.

Section 3 Information content and means of transmission