Under the leadership of Andrea Ziegenrücker, bdla spokesperson for competition, the committee of the same name met in Berlin on 12 March 2018.

The problem of "grey" competition and award procedures was discussed intensively. The initiative of the Association of German Architects to boycott grey procedures of 30 June 2017 was supported. The leaflet "Are you 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 approaches to a solution, for example five, whereby 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, in its own opinion, legally permissible and comparatively inexpensive model.

The AK Wettbewerbswesen appreciates this objective, but the majority is against the propagation of "planning competition", as this could lead to an "infiltration" of the RPW.

On 18 April 2016, the Public Procurement Ordinance (VgV) came into force, which regulates the public procurement of planning services above the EU threshold of currently 221,000 euros. The AK will discuss experiences with the new law. It is criticised that the requirements for bidders are often defined unnecessarily high. Unfortunately, it can also be observed that even in sub-threshold procedures the VgV is sometimes applied one-to-one, which leads to a disproportionate amount of work. In the interest of simplification, it would be conceivable, among other things, for bidders to initially only submit self-declarations, e.g. on reference projects or insurance cover, and only submit the relevant supporting documents when the contract is awarded.

Another topic of the meeting was the amendment of the RPW, which is to be completed in the current year.

Source: bdla association magazine "Landschaftsarchitekten" 2/2018

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