Ex-ante control is a check of public procurement carried out by the provider before the contract is signed with the supplier, or even before the contract notice itself is published. Its aim is to detect breaches of the Public Procurement Act and the provider's rules in good time – for example discriminatory participation conditions, an incorrectly determined estimated contract value, or errors in the tender documents – and to allow the beneficiary to remedy them before they cause a financial correction. A distinction is made between the first ex-ante control of the documentation before the procurement is announced and the second ex-ante control of the tender evaluation process before the contract is concluded. The opposite is ex-post control, carried out after the contract with the supplier is signed, in which detected breaches lead directly to corrections. Using ex-ante control is therefore the most effective prevention of a reduction in the contribution.
See also: Financial correction, Public procurement in EU projects.
