Public procurement

Open tendering:

In an open tendering procedure, the contract notice serves as an invitation to submit bids, and all interested contractors are allowed to participate. Despite the open nature of this procedure, contractors must demonstrate in their submitted bids that they are not subject to exclusion on the grounds specified in the contract notice or procurement documents, and confirm that they meet the conditions for participation in the procedure.

Open tendering, alongside restricted tendering, is one of the fundamental procurement procedures. Given its full accessibility and competitive nature, the legislator has allowed contracting authorities to apply the open tendering procedure in all circumstances, regardless of the type of contract. Once the bids have been evaluated and it has been verified that the contractor with the highest-rated offer meets the participation requirements, the contracting authority selects the most advantageous offer and concludes a contract with the chosen contractor.

It should be noted that open tendering may only be used for contracts with a value equal to or exceeding the EU thresholds. For contracts below the EU thresholds, the equivalent procedure is generally the basic procedure.

Restricted tendering:

Restricted tendering is a procedure in which competition is limited to bids submitted by contractors who have been pre-qualified to take part in the process. This ensures a more level playing field, as only contractors who meet the participation requirements and are not subject to exclusion may submit bids. When instruments limiting the number of invited contractors are applied, the bids are compared among those who best meet the selection criteria.

Restricted tendering is particularly suitable for contracts that attract significant interest from contractors, where the contracting authority wishes to choose among bids submitted by the most capable contractors—those with the resources necessary to deliver the contract to the highest standard.

The restricted tendering procedure consists of three main stages:

• Initiation of the procedure by submitting the contract notice to the Publications Office of the European Union and inviting contractors to apply for participation in the restricted tendering procedure.

• Evaluation of requests to participate in the procedure.

• Invitation of selected contractors to submit their bids and selection of the most advantageous offer.

Negotiated procedure with publication:

The negotiated procedure with publication may be applied only to classic contracts with a value equal to or exceeding the EU thresholds and only when at least one of the statutory conditions is met. Such conditions include the absence of a satisfactory solution available on the market that meets the contracting authority’s needs or cases where the contract involves a design or innovative solution. In this procedure, any interested contractor may submit a request to participate in response to the contract notice.

After the pre-qualification stage, the contracting authority invites the admitted contractors to submit initial tenders and then conducts negotiations with them to improve the content of those initial tenders, as well as any subsequent tenders submitted during the negotiation process. Once the negotiations are completed, the contracting authority invites contractors to submit their final tenders. The most advantageous tender is then selected from among the final tenders.

The contracting authority may also award the contract based on the initial tenders without conducting negotiations, provided that such an option has been specified in the contract notice. As a rule, a tender submitted under this procedure is considered preliminary and serves as a basis for negotiations aimed at clarifying or supplementing the description of the subject matter of the contract or the terms of the public procurement agreement. However, in some cases, the initial tenders may fully meet the contracting authority’s requirements, allowing it to select the most advantageous offer directly.

This procedure may only be applied when the specific conditions set out in the Public Procurement Law are met, such as the need to adapt existing market solutions to the contracting authority’s needs. The negotiated procedure with publication is only rarely used in public procurement practice.

Competitive dialogue

Competitive dialogue is a procurement procedure in which any interested contractor may submit a request to participate in response to a contract notice. The contracting authority then conducts a dialogue with the invited contractors concerning the solutions they propose and, after completing this stage, invites them to submit their tenders. This procedure may be used only when the circumstances justify conducting the procurement as a negotiated procedure with publication.

The competitive dialogue procedure consists of three main stages:

• Publication of the contract notice and qualification of contractors for the next stage;

• The dialogue stage, during which discussions are held with qualified contractors, followed by an invitation to submit tenders;

• Submission and evaluation of tenders.
  

Innovation partnership:

The innovation partnership is a public procurement procedure designed specifically for contracts involving innovative products. It is applied when there is a need for an innovative product, service, or construction work that is not yet available on the market. When choosing this procedure, the contracting authority must demonstrate that, at the time of initiating the procurement process, the innovative product, service, or construction work does not exist on the market.

The innovation partnership is a relatively complex procedure with a strong negotiation component, yet it remains highly open to competition. The procedure begins with the publication of a contract notice, after which interested contractors may submit requests to participate.

The innovation partnership procedure consists of the following stages:

• Initiation of the procedure by submitting the contract notice to the Publications Office of the EU and inviting contractors to apply for participation (all interested contractors may submit applications).
• Evaluation of requests to participate in the procedure.
• Invitation of qualified contractors to submit initial tenders and conducting negotiations to improve the content of those tenders.
• Submission of subsequent tenders by contractors and further negotiations with those submitting them.
• Invitation to submit final tenders, which include research and development activities aimed at creating an innovative product, service, or construction work. Once these have been developed, the contracting authority proceeds with the purchase of the resulting supplies, services, or construction works—provided that they meet the agreed performance levels and maximum costs established between the contracting authority and the contractor(s).
  

Negotiated procedure without publication:

The negotiated procedure without publication is a non-competitive procurement procedure in which the contracting authority first negotiates the terms of the public contract with the contractors invited to participate and then invites them to submit their tenders. This procedure is considered to be of low competitiveness due to its lack of openness, as the contracting authority independently decides which contractors to invite to the negotiations.

However, it does not completely exclude competition, as is the case with the single-source procurement procedure, since the contracting authority still compares the offers submitted by the invited contractors.

Single-source procurement:

The single-source procurement procedure is a non-competitive method of awarding a public contract that may be used only in strictly defined circumstances. It is characterized by the fact that the contracting authority awards the contract following negotiations with only one contractor. As such, it constitutes an exceptional procedure permitted only in specific cases provided for by law, where the use of competitive procedures is not feasible or justified. In this procedure, the contracting authority negotiates directly with a single contractor to agree on the terms of the contract.

This procedure may be applied only in situations specified in the Public Procurement Law, for example, when a particular product or service can be supplied by only one contractor, or when a design contest has been held and the prize includes an invitation to negotiate with the author of the winning entry under the single-source procurement procedure.