Article 72

United Kingdom

Without prejudice to the application of penalties laid down in the contract, candidates or tenderers and contractors who have been guilty of making false declarations or have been found to have seriously failed to meet their contractual obligations in an earlier procurement procedure shall be excluded from all contracts and grants financed by the Agency's general budget for a maximum of two years from the time when the infringement is established, as confirmed after an adversarial procedure with the contractor.

That period may be extended to three years in the event of a repeat offence within five years of the first infringement.

Tenderers or candidates who have been guilty of making false declarations shall also receive financial penalties representing 2 to 10 % of the total value of the contract being awarded.

Contractors who have been found to have seriously failed to meet their contractual obligations shall receive financial penalties representing 2 to 10 % of the total value of the contract in question.

That rate may be increased to 4 to 20 % in the event of a repeat offence within five years of the first infringement.

In the cases referred to in points (a), (c) and (d) of Article 43(1), the candidates or tenderers shall be excluded from all contracts and grants for a maximum of two years from the time when the infringement is established, as confirmed after an adversarial procedure with the contractor.

In the cases referred to in points (b) and (e) of Article 43(1), the candidates or tenderers shall be excluded from all contracts and grants for a minimum of one year and a maximum of four years from the date of notification of the judgment.

Those periods may be extended to five years in the event of a repeat offence within five years of the first infringement or the first judgment.

The cases referred to in point (e) of Article 43(1) shall be the following:

(a)

cases of fraud as referred to in Article 1 of the Convention on the protection of the European Communities' financial interests drawn up by the Council Act of 26 July 1995^f1;

(b)

cases of corruption as referred to in Article 3 of the Convention on the fight against corruption involving officials of the European Communities or officials of Member States of the European Union, drawn up by the Council Act of 26 May 1997^f2;

(c)

cases of participation in a criminal organisation, as defined in Article 2(1) of Council Joint Action 98/733/JHA of 21 December 1998 on making it a criminal offence to participate in a criminal organisation in the Member States of the European Union^f3;

(d)

cases of money laundering as defined in Article 1 of Council Directive 91/308/EEC of 10 June 1991 on prevention of the use of the financial system for the purpose of money laundering^f4.

Annotations

Footnotes

f1: OJ C 316, 27.11.1995, p. 48.
f2: OJ C 195, 25.6.1997, p. 1.
f3: OJ L 351, 29.12.1998, p. 1.
f4: OJ L 166, 28.6.1991, p. 77. Directive as amended by Directive 2001/97/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (OJ L 344, 28.12.2001, p. 76).