On 28 July 2016, the amendment to the Public Procurement Law of 29 January 2004 (the “amendment”) entered into force. The objective of the amendment is to implement Directive 2014/24/EU and Directive 2014/25/EU into the Polish legal system, as well as to simplify and increase the flexibility of the public procurement procedure.
One of the main assumptions of the amendment is implementation of the European Single Procurement Document (the “Single Document”), which replaces certificates and other documents issued by public authorities or third parties at the initial stage of the procedure. Only the contractor who is awarded a given contract is obliged to submit a full set of documents.
New regulations also aim to promote non-economic public procurement objectives by introducing a new public procurement category — contracts for social services and other special services (health and cultural services). When selecting the most favourable bid for performance of this type of services, the employer takes into account not only the price and costs, but also the quality of the service, its sustainable nature, continuity and availability as well as the needs of its users. The legislator also added a new procurement procedure — innovation partnership. It applies to issues such as development or sale of an innovative product, service or construction works, unavailable in the market. Moreover, in the case of contracts for services or construction works, the employer, when selecting bids, will take into account whether the contractor or subcontractor employs individuals performing the contact on the basis of an employment contract.
The non-economic objectives of public procurement are also promoted through restricted application of the price criterion in tender settlement. If the employer decide to use the price as the sole criterion or a criterion whose weight exceeds 60 per cent, they are obliged to determine — in the description of the subject-matter of the contract — the qualitative standards referring to all material features of the subject-matter of the contract and demonstrate how the costs of the product’s life-cycle were taken into account in the description of the subject-matter of the contract.
An important change is expansion of the scope of use of electronic communication forms as a part of public procurement. Firstly, the obligation to maintain electronic communication between the employer and the contractors has been introduced. Secondly, it has been made possible to carry out an electronic auction under the dynamic purchasing system and in the case of contracts awarded pursuant to a framework agreement. Thirdly, bids, requests to participate in the procedure and declarations, including the Single Document, currently require a secure electronic signature, otherwise being invalid. However, the amendment provides for an exception from the obligatory electronic form at the bid submission stage, e.g. due to lack of possibility to obtain appropriate devices or due to data security protection.