General Administration - Hosting and Maintenance Mission for the Municipal Website

✓Duration is fixed at 48 months.

✓Digital assets (domain name, SSL/TLS certificates, DNSSEC keys) must be registered and held in the name of the contracting authority from the start to avoid technical dependency.

✓Reception occurs by a formal report (acceptance or refusal) within 30 days after the completion date or after the contractor’s formal request; there is no contractual warranty period for this market.

✓Such as in I.3 and I.10, the award criteria and weighting are very simple.

✓The procedure is a simplified negotiated procedure with prior publication (procédure négociée directe avec publication préalable / vereenvoudigde onderhandelingsprocedure met voorafgaande bekendmaking), with the right reserved to award based on initial offers without negotiation.

✓Price is explicitly the sole award criterion: the authority will choose the “economically most advantageous offer determined on the basis of price”.

✓No variants and no options are allowed (no free, required or authorised variants/options).

✓The validity period of offers is 120 calendar days from the deadline for receipt.

✓Submission is exclusively electronic via the Belgian e‑Procurement platform before 6 November 2026 at 11:00; paper or e‑mail offers are forbidden, and by submitting electronically, bidders accept that the receipt system data are recorded.

✓Such as in sections II.3–II.6 and II.8–II.20, the documents set out risks and special conditions.

✓The contractor must take out insurances covering work accidents and civil liability towards third parties and, within 30 days of contract conclusion, prove insurance via an attestation; on request this must be provided again within 15 days.

✓No performance bond/cautionnement/borgtocht is required.

✓There is generally no price revision, but a specific re‑examination clause allows revisions if Belgian impositions (taxes etc.) change under strict conditions regarding timing and coverage.

✓For SMEs (PME/KMO) defined according to the EU recommendation, advances are possible: 20% for micro, 10% for small, 5% for medium enterprises, with repayment via set‑off when 30% and 60% of services are performed; payment of the advance requires a dated written request.

✓Re‑examination clauses cover: replacement of contractor in case of corporate restructuring, unforeseeable circumstances affecting contractual balance (with possible extension, other revision or termination), and delays or prejudice caused by either party (with measures including adjustment of terms, damages or termination, subject to a minimum prejudice of 15% of the initial contract amount).

✓Suspensions ordered by the authority can give rise to damages if the suspension exceeds 1/20 of the execution period and at least 10 working or 15 calendar days, is not due to weather or external circumstances, and occurs within the execution period.

✓Treatment of invoices must occur within 30 days from completion or invoice receipt; invoices must be electronic (XML, PEPPOL BIS), including specified core elements, and sent via the Belgian e‑invoicing channels.

✓Special clauses address illegal third‑country nationals and non‑payment of wages: if notifications under the Social Penal Code or labour law are received, the contractor/subcontractor must immediately stop working at the site until issues are remedied, and must cascade similar clauses down its subcontracting chain.

✓There are also confidentiality and data protection obligations aligned with GDPR.

✓Regarding contradictions or corrections within the documents, the French and Dutch versions are parallel and substantively consistent: both state a duration of 48 months, no general price revision, no warranty period, no variants/options, and price as unique award criterion.

✓One apparent tension is that the table of contents mentions “Herzieningsclausule: prijsherzieningen / Clause de réexamen: révisions de prix” while the body text of II.5 states that no price revision applies; this is resolved by reading II.5 as the applicable rule (the heading is generic, but the clause itself clearly says there is no price revision).

✓Otherwise, the bilingual documents reinforce each other and do not contain conflicting substantive obligations; where wording differs, the operative clauses (not the headings or summaries) are to be followed.