Key Takeaways

• The direct award is an exceptional procedure and requires special justification or falling below specific value limits.

• For construction services under VOB/A, specific thresholds apply depending on the trade (e.g., 10,000 euros for finishing trades).

• The process requires obtaining at least three comparable bids, even without public notification.

• A direct award with a qualification stage is possible under certain conditions for market exploration.

Introduction

Around 30 percent of all national procurements in Germany take place via procedures without public notification (Source: Bundeskartellamt, 2025 Report). For you as a bidder, this means: A large part of the market remains invisible if you only wait for open tenders. The direct award is a national procurement procedure in which the public contracting authority awards construction, supply, or service contracts to selected companies without a prior public call for participation. It is only permitted in legally defined exceptional cases or below certain value limits. This guide shows Bid Managers and managing directors how to position themselves for these direct contract opportunities.

Contents

• What is the direct award procurement procedure at a glance?

• What special features apply to the direct award for construction services?

• What are the value limits and rules of the direct award under VOB?

• Practical Focus: How do you apply the direct award under VOB/A in a legally secure manner?

• The direct award process in practice

• When is a direct award with a qualification stage worthwhile?

• Checklist: Direct Award

• How Forgent approaches this

• Frequently Asked Questions about the direct award

What is the direct award procurement procedure at a glance?

The public sector in Germany offers enormous potential for medium-sized companies. With an annual contract volume of around 500 billion euros, public procurement accounts for about 15 percent of the German gross domestic product (Source: Forgent Blog). For you as a bidder, the direct award procurement procedure means direct access to this lucrative market without having to prevail against countless competitors in open procedures. Because the contracting authority specifically targets companies in this procedure, broad competition is eliminated. This significantly increases your chances of an award, but requires that you are already known to the procurement offices as a capable partner. The strategic positioning of your company with the relevant authorities is therefore the most important lever. If you know the criteria of the buyers exactly and proactively prove your suitability, you secure regular invitations to submit a bid. This is how you turn public procurement into a reliable and predictable sales channel for your company.

In contrast to the open procedure, where any company may submit a bid, the procurement office selects the bidders itself here. The principles from § 97 GWB regarding transparency and economic efficiency still apply.

This knowledge secures you valuable competitive advantages.

What special features apply to the direct award for construction services?

If you provide construction services for the public sector, the VOB/A (Procurement and Contract Procedures for Construction Work) is your most important legal basis. The direct award for construction services is an exceptional procedure. According to § 3a Abs. 3 VOB/A, it is only permitted if a public tender is inexpedient.

For you as a bidder, this means: You must understand when contracting authorities are allowed to use this leeway. This is the case, for example, if no public documents may be published for reasons of secrecy or if no economic bid was received after an unsuccessful public tender. Authorities also resort to this procedure in cases of special urgency that the contracting authority did not cause itself. In practice, the procurement office then usually requests at least three companies to submit a bid.

These requirements determine your strategic positioning.

What are the value limits and rules of the direct award under VOB?

In addition to the substantive reasons for exception, the VOB/A defines clear financial thresholds below which a direct award is permitted without further justification. § 3a Abs. 4 VOB/A establishes these value limits, which vary depending on the trade.

For finishing trades, landscaping, and road equipment, the limit is a contract value of 10,000 euros (excluding VAT). For civil engineering, building construction, and structural engineering services, the procedure is permitted up to a value of 50,000 euros (Source: § 3a Abs. 4 VOB/A). For you as a bidder, this means: If your typical project volume is below these limits, you should strongly align your sales with the direct targeting of buyers, as these contracts never appear on public portals.

Know these limits for your success.

Practical Focus: How do you apply the direct award under VOB/A in a legally secure manner?

The analysis of complex procurement documents requires the highest precision to avoid overlooking any mandatory exclusion criteria. In an interview with the CTO of Forgent, it becomes clear: "Trust nothing you haven't tested yourself." This principle applies especially to automated document review. While generic AI like ChatGPT often only achieves an accuracy of 50 to 80 percent when extracting procurement data, according to internal Forgent benchmarks published in this interview, domain-specific AI delivers reliable and precise results. The AI analyzes the suitability criteria and extracts the required proofs from the documents. The Bid Manager then decides whether the company will submit a bid based on this processed data. Through this clear division of tasks, you retain full control over the process. You drastically reduce the manual reading effort and simultaneously ensure that all formal requirements of the procurement office are addressed flawlessly in your final bid.

Precise data determines your award.

The direct award process in practice

The direct award process differs significantly from open procedures, as the initiative comes from the procurement office. To be successful here, you must understand the process from the buyer's perspective and position yourself accordingly.

Tip: Maintain direct contact with regional procurement offices. Since they directly request companies to submit a bid in a direct award, your prior visibility as a reliable partner is crucial.

Step 1: Build market visibility and prequalification

Since there is no public notification, you must appear on the radar of the contracting authorities. Register in the bidder databases of the municipalities and ministries relevant to you. Use prequalification procedures (such as PQ-VOB for construction services) to prove your suitability in advance. This reduces the review effort for the authority and increases the probability that you will be selected for a direct award.

Step 2: Review the request to submit a bid

If you have been selected, you will receive the procurement documents directly. Immediately check the deadlines and the required proofs. Even if competition is restricted to a few bidders, strict formal requirements apply. A missing signature or an unsubmitted form will mandatorily lead to the exclusion of your bid.

Step 3: Create and submit the bid

Creating the final bid requires exact alignment with the requirements of the procurement office. Since often only three companies are requested to submit a bid in a direct award, the competition is smaller but of high quality. You must clearly highlight in your concept why your approach offers the greatest added value. Ensure that you fully include all required proofs of suitability and references, as incomplete documents lead to immediate exclusion even in this simplified procedure. Use the time gained from the reduced competition to optimize your pricing and methodological approach in detail. A convincing bid not only answers the questions asked but also anticipates the unspoken needs of the public contracting authority. If you systematically anchor these aspects in your bid strategy, you maximize your success rate. A thorough final check of all documents before the deadline is the last but crucial step for your award.

A structured process minimizes your error rate.

When is a direct award with a qualification stage worthwhile?

In certain cases, the contracting authority precedes the actual procurement with a qualification stage. Here, a public call is made to submit requests to participate. From the incoming requests, the authority then selects the companies that are requested to submit a bid.

For you as a bidder, a direct award with a qualification stage means a two-stage process. You must first prove your suitability (financial, economic, technical) before you are even allowed to calculate a bid. This requires fast and precise decisions. By using specialized software, the HR service provider YER was able to reduce its bid/no-bid decisions in such procedures from an average of three days to a few hours, accelerating the process by 87.5 percent (Source: YER Case Study).

This preparation increases your final chances of winning.

Checklist: Direct Award

Use this checklist to optimize your processes for direct contract opportunities:

• Update company profile in regional and national bidder databases.

• Complete prequalification (e.g., PQ-VOB) for relevant trades.

• Document VOB/A value limits for your own portfolio.

• Store proofs of suitability and references centrally and ready to hand.

• Immediately check incoming requests for deadlines and knockout criteria.

• Tailor the bid exactly to the provided procurement documents.

Before you open the next procurement procedure, check your registrations on the relevant regional procurement platforms.

How Forgent approaches this

The manual review of procurement documents and the checking of suitability criteria cost bid teams countless hours in Excel and PDF documents. As a domain-specific AI platform for tenders, Forgent covers the process end-to-end: Find → Evaluate → Apply → Manage. The system analyzes documents with over 10,000 pages and enables you to make a well-founded bid/no-bid decision in under 5 minutes instead of several hours. You still make the final decision.

In a short demo, you will see how Forgent handles this for your next tender.

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Frequently Asked Questions about the direct award

When is a direct award permitted?

It is permitted if a public tender is inexpedient (e.g., in cases of special urgency or secrecy) or if the estimated contract value falls below certain thresholds. For construction services under VOB/A, these limits are 10,000 euros or 50,000 euros, depending on the trade.

How many bids must be obtained in this procedure?

Even without public notification, the legislator requires competition. As a rule, the public contracting authority must obtain at least three comparable bids from different, capable companies to ensure the economic efficiency of the procurement.

What is the difference to the negotiated award?

Historically and in the VOB/A, the direct award refers to construction services. In the area of supply and service contracts (UVgO), the term was replaced by the "negotiated award". Both procedures are characterized by the fact that the contracting authority directly targets companies, but in the negotiated award, the entire content of the bid may be negotiated.

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