Veřejné zakázky – jaké změny nás brzy čekají? (2)

Public procurement - what changes are coming soon? (2)

In one of our previous alerts, we presented the amendment to the Public Procurement Act (hereinafter referred to as "PPA") in general terms and mentioned the changes that will affect the simplified sub-limit procedure. The Chamber of Deputies approved the draft amendment and forwarded it to the Senate, which will start discussing it in early May.

The amendment will also affect the part regulating the protection of the contractor against the contracting authority's incorrect procedure through objections. The contracting authority will now be able to stipulate in the tender documentation that objections to the tender conditions can be submitted no later than 72 hours before the end of the deadline for submission of tenders, thus giving the contracting authority room to supplement or amend the tender conditions. The legislator thus meets the experience of a number of contracting authorities whose procurement procedures were challenged by contractors' objections just before the deadlines expired, when the contracting authorities no longer had the practical possibility of modifying the terms of reference or extending the relevant deadlines.

The technical and clarifying nature of the amendment is also reflected in this part of the law. Section 241 will reformulate the filing of objections as a general option, from which exceptions (i.e. the impossibility to oppose the contracting authority's procedure by means of objections) will be provided for small-scale public contracts and concessions and sub-limit sectoral public contracts. It will also be clarified that if the contracting authority accepts the objection, it will not be obliged to comment in detail on all the facts set out in the statement of objections. Similarly, it does not have to do so in the case of late objection or objection filed by an unauthorised person.

Furthermore, the new wording of the Act will also clarify that the so-called blocking period (the period during which the contracting authority may not conclude a contract for a public contract and thus terminate the procurement procedure) is triggered only by objections filed in time; it does not apply in cases where there is only one participant in the procurement procedure.

Look out for more information on the pending changes to the procurement law in the coming days.

If you would like further information, please contact the authors of this article or other members of the EY team with whom you work.

Authors:

Jan Turek

Eliška Mandíková