State-owned and state-affiliated companies that are organized under private law must elect an auditor (Art. 727 ff. CO).
Federal procurement law stipulates that state-owned and state-affiliated companies must under certain conditions put their procurements out to public tender (see Art. 4 para. 2 PPA and the list in Art. 2, Annex 1 PPO).
It is however, from the FAOA's perspective, doubtful whether the award of an audit mandate can in fact be classified as «procurement» (de lege lata) or should continue to be classified as such (de lege ferenda): On the one hand, the external auditor has an official position and is subject to liability-related duties of action, which is why it can only make limited price concessions with regard to the quality of its work. On the other hand, the requirements of procurement law may, depending on the circumstances, unreasonably restrict the discretion of the state-owned or state-affiliated company in selecting a suitable auditor.
Weighting of price
According to the Federal Supreme Court, the award criterion of price must be taken into account to the extent of at least 20% (BGE 143 II 553, E. 6.4). The Federal Office for Buildings and Logistics recommends a weighting of 30%, although there is no explicit requirement to this effect.
In the case of audit mandates that have been publicly tendered by state-owned and state-affiliated companies of the federal government, cantons, and municipalities (www.simap.ch), price weightings of between 20% and 50% have been seen in the past.
In view of maintaining appropriate quality, the tendering of an audit engagement with a price weighting exceeding 30% should be considered problematic and exceeding 50% as concerning.