Legal and Technological Conditions in the Process of Electronisation in Communication between Parties in Public Procurement

Abstract

Starting from 18 October 2018, public procurement procedures with a value equal to and exceeding the amounts specified in the secondary legislation issued pursuant to Article 11 (8) of the Public Procurement Law (i.e. above the so-called EU thresholds) are covered by the obligation of full electronic communication between the contracting authority and economic operators. Currently, a tender (or an application to participate in the procedure) in a procedure above the EU thresholds, to be valid, must be submitted only in electronic form (and not in paper form) and signed with a qualified electronic signature. The new legal situation resulted in the need to employ, both by economic operators and contracting authorities, new IT tools allowing them to achieve compliance in this regard. Meanwhile, many economic operators, especially medium and small ones, have not had sufficient IT infrastructure (especially software) as well as sufficient knowledge of the ways and methods of electronic preparation and implementation of public procurement processes. A provisional way to implement new solutions is to provide the miniPortal for e-Procurement, which allows for the safe submission of a tender or application for participation in proceedings and statements, including a European Single Procurement Document compliant with the requirements laid down in both the EU law and national law. However, this tool poses many technical problems, causing a number of disruptions in the public procurement process. The publication contains information stemming from the author’s and other practitioners’ direct observation of the communication between parties in the public procurement process.