Terms used on DevelopmentAid

ACP States	The Africa, Caribbean and Pacific States signatories of the ACP-EC Partnership Agreement.
Acceptance of an Offer	The formal agreement to accept an offer. An acceptance must be an unconditional assent to the offer or else it is a counteroffer.
Addendum	A document modifying the terms and conditions of a contract.
Action document (previously known as Action Fiche)	The document describing each action planned in the Annual Action Programme (AAP).
Value for money (VfM)	VfM means effective, efficient, and economic use of resources, which requires the evaluation of relevant costs and benefits, along with an assessment of risks and of non-price attributes and/or life-cycle costs, as appropriate. Price alone may not necessarily represent VfM. See also "most economically advantageous offer".
Bill of quantities	The document containing an itemized breakdown of the works to be carried out in a unit price contract, indicating a quantity for each item and the corresponding unit price. (W).
Budget breakdown	The schedule that breaks down the contract value according to the different items or services, stating out fee rate, unit prices and lump sums for each item provided (W, SER, SUP).
Call for proposals	A public invitation by the Contracting Authority, addressed to clearly identified categories of applicants, to propose operations within the framework of a specific programme.
Conflict of interests	Any event influencing the capacity of a candidate, tenderer, applicant or contractor or grant beneficiary to give an objective and impartial professional opinion, or preventing it, at any moment, from giving priority to the interests of the Contracting Authority. Any event that compromises the impartial and objective exercise of the functions or the Contracting Authority, or the respect to the principles of competition, non-discrimination or equality of treatment of candidates/tenderers/applicants with regards to the award procedure or contract. Any consideration relating to possible contracts in the future or conflict with other commitments, past or present, of a candidate, tenderer, applicant or contractor. These restrictions also apply to any sub-contractors and employees of the candidate, tenderer, applicant or contractor.
Consortium/Join venture	A grouping of eligible natural and legal persons or public entities, which submits a tender or an application, under a tender procedure or in response to a Call for Proposals. It may be a permanent, legally-established grouping or a grouping which has been constituted informally for a specific tender procedure or Call for Proposals. All members of a consortium (i.e., the leader and all other partners) are jointly and severally liable to the Contracting Authority.
Contract budget/price/value	A summary of the costs of performing the contract. The total of these costs is the contract value or contract price. In the case of works the sum represents the initial estimate payable for the execution of the works or such other sum as ascertained by the final statement of account as due to the contractor under the contract.In the case of grants the budget shows the eligible costs for funding and the total costs. The income must also be detailed.
Contracting Authority	(i) in case of direct management: the Donor on behalf of and for the account of the partner country/countries, (ii) in case of indirect management: the State or the entity concluding the contract as provided for (where appropriate) in the Financing Agreement.
Contractor	Any natural or legal person or public entity or consortium of such persons and/or bodies selected at the end of the procedure for the award of the contract. The successful tenderer, once parties have signed the contract.
Corrigendum	Correction of a notice or guidelines already published in the Official Journal of the European Union and/or equivalent local publication and on the EuropeAid website.
Evaluation committee	A committee made up of a non-voting Chairperson, a non-voting secretary and an odd number (at least three) of voting members (the evaluators) with the technical and administrative expertise capacities necessary to give an informed opinion on tenders or grant applications.
Expert	A natural person employed or otherwise legally contracted by an eligible contractor, or where applicable subcontractor, engaged to provide the expertise required for the proper performance of a contract.
Financial offer	The part of a tender which contains all the financial elements of the tender, including its summary budget and any detailed price breakdown or cash-flow forecast required by the tender dossier.
Framework contract	A framework contract is a contract concluded between a Contracting Authority and an economic operator for the purpose of laying down the essential terms governing a series of specific contracts to be awarded during a given period, in particular as regards the duration, subject, prices, conditions of performance and the quantities envisaged. The Contracting Authority may also conclude multiple framework contracts, which are separate contracts with identical terms awarded to a number of suppliers or service providers.
Implementation period	The period from the signature, or alternative date if specified in the Special Conditions, until the provisional acceptance of the works (W) or until the provisional acceptance for the last lot has been issued (SUP) or until all tasks have been carried out (SER) or until all project activities have been carried out (G).
Invitation to tender	Letter sent to shortlisted candidates in a restricted procedure or competitive negotiated procedure inviting them to submit a tender.
Key expert	Expert who is defined as instrumental in the Terms of Reference and who are subject to evaluation as part of the tender. (SER)
Most economically advantageous tender	The tender proposal judged best in terms of the criteria laid down for the contract, e.g. quality, technical properties, aesthetic and functional qualities, after-sales service and technical assistance in relation to the price offered. These criteria must be announced in the tender dossier.
National currency	The currency of the partner country.
Negotiated procedure	Procedure without prior publication of a contract notice, in which the Contracting Authority consults the candidate or candidates of its choice and negotiates the terms of the contract with one or more of them. This procedure may only be used exceptionally and when duly justified.
Non-key expert	Expert who is not defined as instrumental in the Terms of Reference and who is approved by the Project Manager by administrative order. (SER)
Project manager	The person responsible for monitoring the implementation of a project on behalf of the Contracting Authority.
Supplier	Any natural or legal person or public entity or consortium of such persons and/or bodies offering to supply products.
Technical assistance contract	A contract between a service provider and the Contracting Authority, under which the service provider exercises an advisory role, manages or supervises a project, provides the experts specified in the contract.
Technical offer	The part of a tender which contains all non-financial elements of the tender, i.e., all elements other than the financial offer which are required by the tender dossier. The technical offer must not contain any financial indications.
Tender	A written or formal offer to supply goods, perform services or execute works for an agreed price.
Tender dossier	The dossier which contains all the documents needed to prepare and submit a tender.
Tenderer	A natural or legal person or consortium thereof submitting a tender with a view to concluding a contract.
Terms of reference	The document drawn up by the Contracting Authority setting out its requirements and/or objectives in respect of the provision of services, specifying, where relevant, the methods and resources to be used and/or results to be achieved (SER).
Works contract	Works contracts cover either the execution or both the design and execution, of works or work-related activities, by whatever means, of a work corresponding to the requirements specified by the Contracting Authority exercising a decisive influence on the type or design of the work. A 'work' means the outcome of building or executing civil engineering works taken as a whole that is sufficient of itself to fulfill an economic or technical function (W).