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Ombudsman FAQ’s

28/08/2014 2606 views 4 likes
ESA / About Us / Business with ESA / How to do
  • ESA Procurement Regulations have been in force since 18 July 2011.
     
  • Requests for Ombudsman intervention on the basis of a formal process as laid down in ESA Procurement Regulations and/or Best Practices are extremely rare (on average one/3 years)
     
  • The majority of requests to the Ombudsman are informal requests via letter or e-mail asking for mediation/intervention from the Ombudsman to find an amicable settlement on best effort and within a reasonable time-frame (on average ten/year)
     
  • Most prominent topics:
    • Late payments & disputes on level of payments
    • Treatment of licenses and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
    • De-briefing of tender evaluation results
    • Issues regarding General and Specific Clauses & Conditions
    • Fairness in contract award
       
  • “Informal” Requests are dealt with as either:
    • Case Studies for specific well-identified complaints
      These are Ombudsman confidential dossiers and require approval of the originator(s) to allow the Ombudsman to mediate/intervene on their behalf with the opposite party.
    • Generic Queries covering generic complaints
      These are Ombudsman open dossiers of generic interest, the originator(s) are not disclosed unless prior permission has been given. The Ombudsman intervenes/negotiates on behalf of interest groups at Customer level, i.e., within Eurospace or with ESA.
    • Recommendations
      These are Ombudsman recommendations for consideration to the Head of the ESA Procurement proposing changes to ESA procurement & contract regulations to alleviate/remedy industrial concerns/issues.
  • The role of the Ombudsman is foremost to ensure fairness in ESA procurement and where possible to facilitate amicable settlements for Industry-to-Industry and ESA-to-Industry disputes
     
  • His mediation is free of charge and his independence & confidentiality avoid public exposure
     
  • The majority of issues are settled within a period of 3–6 months
     
  • Companies are invited to contact the Ombudsman even if in doubt of whether the issue falls under his area of competence.

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