The month of July was a very busy month for the Public Procurement Act in terms of implementing legislation and interpretative opinions. The Czech Ministry for Regional Development issued three decrees implementing recent radical changes to the Public Procurement Act and a methodology for the public procurement process.
1. The Decrees
The newly issued decrees cover the following areas, (i)
delineation of the subject-matter in construction tenders, (ii)
commercial terms for construction tenders and (iii) the reasoning
behind public tender s. All decrees shall enter into force on 1
September 2012.
1.1 Definition of the subject-matter in construction
tenders
The decree No. 230/2012 Coll. requires that the tender
documentation clearly specifies its subject-matter in terms of
technical, technological, dispositional and operating
characteristics, appearance and quality. Further, it specifies the
content of an inventory of works, supplies and services, and
statement of measurements.
1.2 Commercial terms for construction tenders
The decree No. 231/2012 Coll. specifies the commercial terms that
the contracting authority has to provide for the construction
tenders. The contracting authority may specify other commercial
terms beyond the set ones, but they have to always be reasonable
and duly justified with respect to the subject-matter of the
tender.
1.3 Reasoning behind public tenders
The decree No. 232/2012 Coll. establishes the amount of detail
that should be included by a public authority when outlining the
reasoning behind a particular public tender (i.e. the needs that
are to be satisfied by the tender, expected date of tender
performance etc.).
2. The Methodology
The methodology for the public procurement process under the
amended Act focuses on the interpretation of procedures and
institutes mainly from a practical point of view; it supports the
correct application of the Act and clarifies its requirements. The
document is available for download on the website of the Ministry
for Regional Development.
The introduction of implementing legislation and the release of
interpretative opinion is an important step in introducing the
changes to the Public Procurement Act in practice. Before the
decrees were introduced, there was a period of uncertainty for
several months, when the Amendment had already been effective, but
the implementing legislation clarifying the new statutory
requirements had not yet existed. However, it should be noted that
some other fundamental decrees have still not been prepared (e.g. a
decree on the e-auctions).
This article was written for Law-Now, CMS Cameron McKenna's free online information service. To register for Law-Now, please go to www.law-now.com/law-now/mondaq
Law-Now information is for general purposes and guidance only. The information and opinions expressed in all Law-Now articles are not necessarily comprehensive and do not purport to give professional or legal advice. All Law-Now information relates to circumstances prevailing at the date of its original publication and may not have been updated to reflect subsequent developments.
The original publication date for this article was 15/08/2012.
