When there are less than three suppliers in public bidding, they can switch to other procurement methods such as competitive negotiation or competitive consultation, but only if the bidding situation is stated in advance in the documents of public bidding. If there is no explanation, the government approval procedures need to be re-taken. You can also apply for single-source procurement directly if you fail to bid twice.
According to Article 3 1 of the Government Procurement Law, there are three reasons for applying for single-source procurement:
(a) Can only be purchased from a single supplier;
(2) Unable to purchase from other suppliers due to unforeseen emergencies;
(3) It is necessary to ensure the consistency of the original procurement items or supporting services, and it is necessary to continue to purchase from the original suppliers, and the total amount of additional funds shall not exceed 10% of the original contract purchase amount. The premise of adopting this method is generally PPP procurement of services or goods, which is rarely used in engineering projects. The process of changing to single-source procurement needs expert argumentation. Generally, the procurement of PPP projects must go through the pre-qualification stage. If the social capital party fails to sign up in the pre-qualification stage, it depends on whether the enterprises that have not signed up for pre-qualification are allowed to participate in public bidding in the tender announcement/pre-qualification documents, and participate in project bidding in the form of post-qualification.