Simpler, faster, cheaper
Both offerers and bidders hope that the changes will be a panacea for the endless bureaucracy that previously hindered investment.
Improving the poor absorption of EU funds and adjusting Polish Law to EU directives were the priorities of the amendment to PZP law. The new legislation includes about 100 changes. Those of most significance to Polish entrepreneurs concern procurements valued between EUR 6,000 (zł.25,200) and EUR 60,000 (zł.252,000), as procedures have been considerably simplified.
The amendments also introduce a few advanced solutions, such as allowing the use of fax and internet to exchange documents. Previously, interested parties were obliged to send hard copies of all documentation, which was inconvenient and expensive.
"New solutions present in the bill changing the Public Procurement Law are beneficial for the participants of the public-procurements market, that is, for the offerers and bidders. New regulations favor further decentralization of the system," commented the president of the Public Procurement Office, Tomasz Czajkowski.
Procurements whose value does not exceed E60,000 will no longer have to be announced in the bulletin of the Public Procurement Office and it will be enough to place the information on the office's website. In the case of such tenders, regulations concerning the bid bond do not apply. There is also no obligation for the bidders to prove their ability to complete the procurement. Most importantly, bidders will no longer be able to submit appeals or complaints to the court, which was a major cause of delays. Now they can only submit protests to the offerer.
Until recently, any minor error, such as the lack of a comma in the documentation, could be a reason to cancel the tender. Now there is a possibility to correct errors without calling off the entire procurement. The form of the procedure will be up to the offerer, and not to the president of the Public Procurement Office, who until recently decided whether a procedure other than a limited or unlimited tender could be applied. Also, according to the amendment, the time for the arbiter courts to issue a decision on certain complaints will be shortened from three months to one.
A completely new office of 'central offerer' has been introduced by the new law. His responsibility will be to purchase products and services for all the state's offices. This central offerer will be appointed by the Prime Minister out of the ministries or central offices. The new regulations also allow the use of more advanced IT solutions. "There will be a possibility to run an internet auction online, which would enable a final competition in real time," adds Czajkowski.
Strabag, which is the biggest player on the tenders market, is not fully satisfied with the changes. "The amendment does not take into consideration the specificity of the biggest tasks within the road infrastructure. Developing such projects requires the cooperation of all the sides in the investment process, however, the Law forces the investors to transfer the risk, for example connectred with the hydro-geological conditions, on the contractors," said the president of Strabag, Dariusz Słotwiński.
