Procurement

ETH Zurich’s procurement policy defines the principles, guidelines and requirements to be observed by both internal procurement personnel and external suppliers. In accordance with this policy, procurement must be needs-based, sustainable, economical and carried out with integrity.

Purchases of movable goods, services and construction services constitute public procurement transactions and are subject to the laws and ordinances governing ETH Zurich. The duties, competences and responsibilities pertaining to procurement at ETH Zurich are defined in the Financial Regulations.

The Real Estate Management, Facility Services, Engineering and Systems, ETH Library, IT Services and Financial Services departments are considered ETH Zurich procurement offices. They either allocate the goods and services assigned to them (in accordance with Appendix 2 of the Financial Regulations), order them on request or provide information on the optimal ordering process. Labware, office and laboratory furniture, information and communications technology (ICT), cleaning services, construction services and printing, dispatch and postal services can be obtained via the internal offices.

Goods and services that cannot be obtained from internal offices may be purchased from external suppliers. Orders with a value of more than CHF 10,000 (incl. VAT) must be made in writing and handled in accordance with the responsible procurement office’s designated process. For procurements above CHF 150,000 (excl. VAT), an invitation process must be carried out in advance in cooperation with the responsible procurement office. For procurements above CHF 230,000 (excl. VAT), the responsible procurement office must be contacted early on, so that the tendering procedure can be determined.

Participants in an ETH Zurich procurement procedure (award procedure) must be impartial – regardless of the procurement amount.

When must I recuse myself and not participate in the procurement procedure?

If participants in a procurement project discover that they have a conflict of interest, they must inform their supervisor immediately.

A conflict of interest, which constitutes a partiality, exists if a person participating on the part of ETH Zurich

• has a personal interest in the assignment
• has a special connection with the tenderer or a member of one of its executive bodies. This includes a current or past close (personal) business relationship (e.g. custom-
  er relationship, strategic partnership, participation, employment/contract relationship, outside activity), spin-off relationship, marriage, registered partnership or consensual union, kinship or affinity, an economically dependent or other type of dependent relationship, or several years of close comradeship (e.g. due to military service)
• lacks the independence required for the performance of public procurements due to other circumstances, insofar as this partiality has a concrete effect on the procurement process.
  

In the above cases, the person concerned is obliged to recuse him- or herself; otherwise the award decision is tainted with a formal error and can be overturned by the court.

To recuse oneself means not to participate in any phase of the procurement procedure, neither in the specification of requirements, nor in the evaluation of the offers, nor in the award decision. The responsible senior budget officer or the head of the department (if the person concerned has departmental budget responsibility) ensures that in the event of a reported partiality in connection with a procurement project, the person concerned recuses him- or herself and that this is documented. Furthermore, the officer ensures that requirements specification, offer evaluation and award decision are carried out by an independent panel of experts, that the procurement process requirements according to Art. 130 of the ETH Zurich Financial Regulations (FR) are complied with and that Purchasing Coordination is informed. In cases of doubt, the Vice President for Finance and Controlling decides on the recusal in terms of Art. 130 para. 3bis FR.

Duties of care and loyalty

Participants in ETH procurement procedures must be aware of the following additional duties of care and loyalty, and possible consequences in case of non-compliance:

• When evaluating offers received as part of a procurement procedure, the person involved exclusively represents the interests of ETH. All information, documents and results are confidential before, during and after the procurement procedure. This means that data should not be made available in any way to unauthorised third parties nor removed from the designated premises.
• In addition, any contact with potential tenderers for the procurement in question that could jeopardise equal treatment of the tenderers is prohibited.
• All gifts, invitations or minor and socially customary favours from potential or effective tenderers before and during the procurement procedure must be refused.
  

Failure to comply with any of the above points may constitute a breach of the duty of care and loyalty under personnel law and may result in sanctions.

Measures to avoid the participation of persons with conflicting vested interests in procurement procedures at ETH Zurich

The following measures are intended to make all participants in procurement procedures aware of the issue of conflicting vested in-terests in procurement:

• For procurement projects over CHF 150,000 (excl. Real Estate Management process), the responsible procurement office requires the budget officer and other contributors (internal and external) to sign a project-related declaration of impartiality. Different declaration forms are used for internal and external contributors.
• Employees involved in procurements (excl. budget officers) of the procurement offices within the scope of Art. 127 FR and of the shops within the scope of Art. 130a FR sign a declaration of impartiality for the duration of their employment. The procurement office or shop is responsible for requesting declarations of impartiality and regularly checking whether other employees need to sign one.
• The budget officers confirm at the end of each year (in the ETHIS annual financial statement process) that they have understood the rules of recusal in procurement procedures and are implementing them in their area of responsibility.
• When recording outside activities, the corresponding ETHIS workflow and, if applicable, the Executive Board approval indicate that in the case of procurements where the company/business group at which the outside activity is performed is being considered as a tenderer, the person with the outside activity must recuse him- or herself.
  

The rules and processes outlined here are drawn from the legal provisions listed under “Legal basis” and the following articles of the Financial Regulations:

• Article 22(e)
• Article 24(9)(c)
• Article 28(1)(i)
• Article 29(1)(h)
• Article 130(3bis)

The ETH Zurich budget officers know the basic principles for procurement, as well as the rules of recusal and measures to prevent persons with conflicting vested interests from participating in procurement procedures. They implement these rules in their area of responsibility.