The Act on Amending Public Procurement Law and Certain Other Acts of 14 March 2014 became effective on 16 April 2014 (Journal of Laws of 2014, item 423). The changes effected under the amendment are revolutionary, both for contracting entities and contractors.
The key novelty is the increased Public Procurement Law (“PPL”) applicability threshold for all contracting entities, from EUR 14,000 to EUR 30,000. This means that for conclusion of excluded contracts (i.e. civil-law agreements with consideration) below PLN 30,000 in value, the requirements laid down under the Public Procurement Law do not need to be met. That means that such agreements can be concluded without the competitive tendering process, and their provisions can be agreed freely between the parties. Further, the amendment introduces the changes, long awaited by a number of professional groups (academic, educational, artistic), with respect to the exclusion of obligatory application of PPL to contracts whose value is below the amounts set forth under provisions issued pursuant to Article 11(8) of PPL, that is lower than the so-called EU thresholds, in the event that these contracts provide for the delivery or rendering: (i) goods or services used exclusively for the purposes of conducting research, experimental, scientific, or development work, not to be used by the contracting entity to engage in series production, to achieve market profitability, or cover the costs of research and development (Article 4(8a)), (ii) goods or services for the purposes of cultural activities, associated with the organization of exhibitions, concerts, competitions, festivals, shows, theatre plays, cultural education events, or museum or library collections, unless the contract is intended to provide the contracting entity with fixed assets to be used in its day-to-day operations (Article 4(8b)), as well as (pursuant to the Act of 30 May 2014 becoming effective on 8 July 2014) (iii) goods or services for the purposes of educational activities, associated with the collection of textbooks, educational materials, and student materials for school libraries, referred to under the Act on System of Education of 7 September 1991 (Journal of Laws of 2004 No. 256, item 2572, as subsequently amended) unless the contract is intended to provide the contracting entity with fixed assets to be used in its day-to-day operations.
The change outlined above means that contracting entities from the public finance sector and those characterised as unincorporated state-owned organisational units will be obligated to apply PPL only if the value of the contracts providing for the above three categories of goods or services is at least EUR 134,000, while in the case of the other contracting entities, the value ceiling applicable to such contracts that triggers obligatory application of PPL stands at EUR 207,000.
Another significant restriction on the application of PPL is introduced by excluding from the scope of the law contracts for services with respect to research and development work and provision of research services which are not fully financed by the contracting entity or the benefits of which are not collected solely by the contracting entity for the purposes of its own activity. This case involves situations when the relevant research and development work service is not fully financed by the contracting entity, meaning that it is co-financed by private entities or rendered within the framework of cooperation between a public and a private entity (research consortia, science clusters, clinical research agreements, etc.).
The amendments to PPL outlined above should help reduce the complexity and increase the speed of awarding public contacts by contracting entities, as well as improving the opportunities to access the quite sizeable public procurement market by contractors.