What does VOF (Procurement Rules for Freelance Services) mean?
Until the 2016 procurement law reform, the Vergabeordnung für freiberufliche Leistungen (VOF, Procurement Rules for Freelance Services) was the special set of rules for awarding freelance services by contracting authorities above the EU thresholds. Freelance services mean in particular architectural and engineering services, but also other intellectual and creative services such as expert reports, consulting or artistic services that do not compete with commercial companies.
The VOF took into account that freelance services usually cannot be tendered with a bill of quantities and unit prices, because the content of the work only becomes specific while the contract is being carried out. Instead, awards under the VOF were made through a negotiated procedure with a competitive call for participation, in which the bidders' competence and experience were the main focus.
When the new Public Procurement Ordinance (Vergabeverordnung, VgV) entered into force on April 18, 2016, the VOF was repealed and its rules were integrated into the VgV. The VgV now contains special provisions for design contests in Sections 73 to 80, which have replaced the previous VOF rules. The basic principles of awarding freelance services, in particular the emphasis on quality over price, were kept.
Relevance for bidders
For bidders offering freelance services, it is important to know that the VOF no longer applies and that awards today follow the VgV. For freelance services, the VgV still prefers the negotiated procedure, because these services typically cannot be described precisely enough to allow an award in an open or restricted procedure.
Architects, engineers and other freelancers should get familiar with the current VgV rules. For freelance services, the award criteria usually emphasize quality, the expertise of the project team and the approach to the task. Price must not be the only award criterion. Bidders should therefore focus their bids especially on the qualitative criteria.
Legal framework
The VOF was repealed by the 2016 procurement law reform. Its rules were transferred to the VgV, in particular to the general procedural provisions and the special rules for design contests (Sections 73 to 80 VgV). Section 14(3) VgV allows the negotiated procedure for services that cannot be described precisely enough. EU Procurement Directive 2014/24/EU contains no separate rules for freelance services but integrates them into the general procurement regime. Older references to the VOF in specialist literature and tender documents should be read as references to the VgV.