Framework agreement

A framework agreement is a multi-year arrangement between an authority and one or more suppliers covering terms — prices, services, duration — for recurring needs. Concrete work is then ordered via call-offs or mini-competitions.

For authorities it saves repeated full procedures; for suppliers it is strategic: once inside a framework, it delivers predictable revenue for years — being outside often means no chance at all for its duration.

Watch out: frameworks are tendered once and typically run two to four years. Miss the tendering window and you wait the whole cycle — tracking re-tender dates is mandatory.