If the bid is not cost-effective, the contracting station may not proceed to award a public procurement contract

ANAC in Resolution No. 79 of January 29, 2020 clarified that the option not to award a tender responds to an immanent assessment of the current public interest on the part of the contracting authority that is grounded in the general principle of good administrative action.

Although the Procurement Code adopted by Legislative Decree No. 50/2016 did not reproduce Article 55, paragraph 4, of Legislative Decree No. 163/2006 (which allowed the contracting authority to provide in the tender law that the award would not be made in the case of only one valid bid), the power not to award, contemplated by paragraph 12 of Article 95 of the current Code, also applies in the case of only one bid if it is “not convenient” or “unsuitable” in relation to the subject matter of the contract.

The power not to award has a “very broad” and highly discretionary character, which can be reviewed only if it is manifestly illogical or vitiated by misrepresentation of facts and can be exercised even in the case of a tender to be awarded according to the lowest price criterion.