October 22, 2020 / Law /

Procurement documents are a new concept introduced by the Act of September 11, 2019, Public Procurement Law. According to Art. 7 point 3 of the new Act, procurement documents are documents drawn up by the contracting authority or documents to which the contracting authority refers, other than a notice, used to define or describe the terms of the contract, including the specification of contract terms and a description of needs and requirements.

As we read in the justification to the draft act, the documents prepared by the contracting authority are not only documents prepared by the contracting authority’s staff, but also documents the preparation of which has been entrusted by the contracting authority to external, professional entities (e.g. design documentation prepared by the design office at the request of the contractor). The procurement documents are also existing studies to which the contracting authority refers. An example is standards, markings or other external technical specifications specifying the required characteristics of materials, products or services to which the contractor only refers in the description of the subject of the contract. Such reference makes them part of the contracting authority’s declaration, even without repeating their content in the tender documentation.

Such a definition will significantly help the contracting authority, however, it may significantly expand the obligations of contractors who will have to carefully verify all the documents referred to by the contracting authority. The contracting authority may not refer to internal regulations, because the procurement documents must be publicly available documents.