The IVöB, the intercantonal agreement on public procurement, is the rulebook for awards below federal level. It applies to cantons, municipalities and the bodies attached to them — that is, to the largest part of Swiss public procurement measured by number of procedures. For a company selling to the public sector it is therefore of greater practical significance than the federal act.
Why an intercantonal agreement is needed
Procurement in Switzerland is not an exclusively federal matter. Cantons and municipalities procure independently, and without coordination each canton would have its own procurement law with its own terminology, procedures and deadlines. For suppliers that would be a substantial barrier to market access: bidding in three cantons would mean mastering three regimes. The IVöB solves this through an agreement the cantons accede to, which then becomes the legal basis in their territory. The result is a largely uniform framework with cantonal competence intact.
How accession works and what follows from it
The decisive point in practice is that the agreement does not automatically apply everywhere. Each canton decides on accession and implements it in its own law, and that process does not run at the same pace everywhere. For a company bidding across cantonal borders that means: the framework is today largely comparable, but the assumption that the same version applies in every canton is not reliable. The governing details are in the documents of the individual tender and in cantonal law — and that is where they belong checked, rather than inferred from experience in another canton.
Harmonisation with federal law
The revision of procurement law expressly aimed to align the federal and cantonal levels. Terminology, procedure types, principles and large parts of the process are today parallel. For suppliers that is a tangible relief: understanding the logic of a procedure at one level lets you find your way at the other. What remains different are competences, appeal routes and individual cantonal arrangements. Harmonisation is therefore an alignment, not a unification — a distinction that becomes relevant precisely when deadlines or legal remedies are at stake.
Procedure types and thresholds
Under the IVöB too, the choice of procedure follows contract value and contract type. Open procedure, selective procedure, invitation procedure and direct award are available, on the same underlying logic as at federal level. The thresholds at which a given procedure is required are revised periodically and differ by contract type and level. They should therefore be checked in their current version for every tender. Practically the most relevant area is below the treaty thresholds, because a large share of cantonal and municipal awards happens there — often in invitation or direct-award procedures that are particularly accessible to smaller regional suppliers.
Publication at cantonal level
Cantonal and municipal tenders are likewise published through simap.ch, operated as a joint platform of the federal government and the cantons. Federal and cantonal awards are therefore findable in one place, which considerably simplifies the search. Publication is in the official language of the awarding body — a point underestimated in practice: working only German-language publications effectively excludes the Romandie and Ticino, even though access would formally be open.
Legal remedies at cantonal level
Decisions by cantonal awarding bodies can be appealed, but the route differs from the federal one. Jurisdiction generally lies with the cantonal administrative courts. Deadlines are short and stated in the appeal instructions of the decision. As at federal level, an appeal does not automatically have suspensive effect, and the time until the deadline rarely suffices for extended internal deliberation. Anyone receiving a decision they disagree with should read the appeal instructions immediately.
The practical consequence for suppliers
For a company selling regionally or across regions to the public sector, two actions follow. First, it pays not to restrict the search field to your own canton, because the harmonised framework has made working on out-of-canton procedures considerably easier. Second, for every tender the first thing to establish is which regime in which version applies and where the appeal route leads. Those two minutes at the start prevent assumptions that cannot be corrected later in the procedure.