If you track public procurement data, you will notice a persistent gap: a significant number of procedures published as Contract Notices (calls for competition) never receive a corresponding Contract Award Notice (CAN). This matters because without the CAN, you do not know who won, at what price, or whether the contract was even awarded.
The legal requirement
Article 50 of Directive 2014/24/EU is clear: contracting authorities must publish a CAN within 30 days of the award decision. This applies to all above-threshold procedures, including frameworks and DPS call-offs.
What actually happens
In practice, approximately 5% of EU procedures never receive a CAN at all. Among those that do, the average publication delay is 45 days — well beyond the 30-day legal requirement. The gap is not random; it follows patterns:
Cancelled procedures: Some procedures are abandoned (no compliant bids, budget issues, changed requirements). Cancellation should still be published, but often is not.
Administrative delays: Overloaded procurement teams prioritize awarding and executing contracts over the paperwork of publishing results. The CAN has no direct operational impact, so it slips.
Below-threshold spillover: Some notices that appear on TED are actually below-threshold, where CAN publication is not strictly required under EU rules (though national rules may still apply).
Multi-lot complexity: Procedures with many lots may publish partial CANs as lots are awarded at different times. Some lots may never be awarded (no suitable bids), creating incomplete data.
Why this matters for procurement intelligence
Missing CANs create blind spots:
- Supplier identification — you cannot see who won or at what price
- Market analysis — award values are missing, skewing spend analytics
- Competitor monitoring — contract wins by competitors are invisible
- Compliance benchmarking — you cannot assess a buyer's transparency record
What you can do
When a procedure is missing its CAN, check:
- The contracting authority's national portal (some publish locally but not on TED)
- Whether a cancellation or corrigendum was published instead
- The time elapsed — some CANs arrive months or even years late