The Czech Public Procurement Act1 will be amended as of 1 January 2014. The aim of the Amendment is to minimise the weaknesses identified in the current application of the Act and to further simplify, clarify, and streamline the public procurement process and enhance its transparency. The purpose of the Amendment is also to incorporate into Czech law changes in EU law in the field of public procurement.
Compulsory procedure thresholds
The Amendment increases the current financial thresholds for small-scale public contracts (now CZK 1 million without VAT for public supply and service contracts, or CZK 3 million without VAT for public works contracts) to the amount of CZK 2 million without VAT for public supply and service contracts, or CZK 6 million without VAT for public works contracts. In practice, this means reducing the administrative burden while allowing greater flexibility in awarding smaller public contracts. However, the limit of CZK 10 million without VAT has been preserved for the applicability of the simplified below-the-threshold public work contract.
Repeated procurement procedure
The Amendment introduces a new rule for repeated procurement procedures. If the contracting authority launches a new (repeated) procurement procedure with the same subject, it can get through the procurement procedure even if only one tender offer is repeatedly delivered or left for evaluation. The contracting authority may continue in the repeated procurement procedure even with one tender offer if it (i) recalled the previous procurement procedure due to a single tender offer; (ii) indentified the previous procurement procedure on the form for notification of a new contract; and (iii) specified in the notification of a new contract all of the changes to the tender documentation made in comparison to the tender documentation of the previous, cancelled procurement procedure.
Institute of person with special competence
The Amendment repeals the "institute of the person with special competence" that had been inserted into the Act in 2012. According to this abolished provision, the person should as of 1 January 2014 have commented on tender documentation of above-the-threshold public contracts before the commencement of the procurement procedure and also should have been a member of the evaluation committee for above-the-threshold public contracts. In connection with the abolition of the institute of person with special competence, the Amendment also repeals the provisions regarding the programme for educating them.
Obligatory submission to competition authority
The contracting authority is newly obliged to send to the Office for the Protection of Competition the electronic version of the tender documentation and additional information. In connection with a failure to comply with this obligation, a new administrative offence and applicable fine have been introduced (CZK 1,000,000, approx. EUR 37,000).
Repeated procurement prior notice
The Amendment extends the circle of situations under which it is not necessary to publish a prior information notice of a repeated procurement procedure. The prior information notice will not be necessary to publish in such case when the contracting authority has any reason to repeat the procurement procedure and if the basic parameters of the new procedure are consistent with the previous procurement procedure. Currently, the contracting authority is only then not obliged to publish the prior information notice if the previous procurement procedure has been cancelled because the contracting authority received only one tender offer or only one tender offer was left for evaluation.
Additional qualification proof
The Amendment newly allows the additional proof of qualification. The facts that are decisive for the fulfilment of the qualifications shall now also be eligible to occur after the deadline for the submission of tender offers. This eliminates the current complications involving the impossibility of providing additional proof of qualification, e.g. in relation to criminal records.
Footnote
1 Act No. 137/2006 Coll. on Public Contracts.
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