Keywords
Summary

Keywords

International agreements ° Third Lomé ACP-EEC Convention ° Provisions concerning financial and technical cooperation ° Procedure for the award of public supply contracts ° Respective roles of the ACP State and the Commission ° Competence of the ACP State to conclude contracts ° Commission' s power of review ° Doubt concerning the Community origin of goods ° Liability of the Community alleged by reason of the request for evidence made by the Commission ° Excluded

(Third ACP-EEC Convention of 8 December 1984)

Summary

In the context of financial and technical cooperation under the Third ACP-EEC Convention, contracts financed by the European Development Fund remain national contracts which only the ACP States have the responsibility of preparing, negotiating and concluding. For their part, undertakings which submit tenders for or are awarded the contracts in question remain outside the exclusive dealings conducted on this matter between the Commission and the ACP States.

However, the Commission has not only the right but also the duty to ensure, before any payments are made out of Community funds, that the conditions for such payments are in fact fulfilled. To that end, it is under a duty in particular to seek the necessary information in order to ensure the economical administration of the resources of the European Development Fund and to refuse to endorse invoices submitted to it where it has serious grounds for doubting that the conditions for Community financing have been satisfied.

Since one of those conditions is that the goods in question must be of Community origin, proof of which is the responsibility of the successful tenderer, the Commission cannot be accused of unlawful or improper conduct for having, as a result of serious doubts, required the successful tenderer to produce documents or provide information evidencing the Community origin of the goods.