Under the leadership of Andrea Ziegenrücker, bdla spokesperson for competition, the bdla working group of the same name dealt with the problem of "grey" competition and award procedures on 12 March 2018 in Berlin.

Unfortunately, it can be observed time and again that contract awards contradict elementary principles of public procurement and competition law. The initiative of the Association of German Architects to boycott grey procedures from last year is therefore supported.

The leaflet "You are looking for the best solution? Information on competitions" by the Baden-Württemberg Chamber of Architects. In it, clients are recommended the model of "planning competition" as an alternative to multiple commissioning or the awarding of competitions: The client is promised several solutions, e.g. five. In this case, the total fee can be lower than in the case of a multiple commissioning. At the same time, the client undertakes to award a full planning contract to one of the competing architects. The intention of the AK Baden-Württemberg is to reduce the number of grey procedures with this comparatively low-priced model.

The majority of the AK Competition is against the propagation of "planning competition". The danger is seen that the current public procurement law could be weakened and the guidelines for planning competitions (RPW) undermined. Nevertheless, the intention of the Chamber of Architects is appreciated.

On 18.04.2016, the Public Procurement Ordinance (VgV) had come into force, which regulates the public procurement of planning services above the EU threshold value of currently 221,000 euros. Experiences with the new law were discussed in the working group. The criticism is that the requirements for bidders are often defined unnecessarily high. It was also observed that even in sub-threshold procedures the VgV is applied one-to-one, which leads to a disproportionate amount of work.

In the interests of simplification, it is proposed that bidders should initially only submit self-declarations, e.g. on reference projects or insurance cover, and that appropriate supporting documents should only have to be submitted subsequently when the contract is awarded.

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