Veřejné zakázky – jaké změny nás brzy čekají? (3)

Public procurement - what changes are coming soon? (3)

In this part of the series of articles on the amendment to the Public Procurement Act, we inform you about the current stage of the negotiations.

In mid-April, the Chamber of Deputies referred the bill to the Senate, which debated it on 10 May and subsequently returned it to the Chamber with amendments.

The main Senate proposals are as follows:

• it is proposed to increase the limits of the estimated value of a small-scale public contracts from the current CZK 2 million to CZK 3 million for contracts for supplies or services and from CZK 6 million to CZK 9 million for construction works. These limits have not been increased since 2014;
• in connection with the previously discussed regulation of conflicts of interest, the Senate proposes adding the possibility for the contracting authority to exclude a participant in a procurement procedure (similarly, a subcontractor of a participant) if the participant is a member of the government or the head of another central administrative authority that is not headed by a member of the government, or if the participant is a legal entity of which the public official is the beneficial owner. Although contracting authorities are already prohibited under the Conflict of Interest Act from awarding a public contract to a member of the Government or its companies, the wording of the amendment works with the concept of "beneficial owner", which, unlike the concept of "control", is easily identifiable from the register of beneficial owners.

Further consideration by the Chamber of Deputies is possible from 22 May. We will be happy to keep you informed of developments.

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