INCREASED LIABILITY DUE TO VIOLATIONS OF TENDER LEGISLATION
18/05/2020
On April 2020 amendments to the Law of Ukraine "On Public Procurement" came into force. Among the main changes - the commissions in tender procurement are abolished and the responsibility for the customer's management for non-compliance with the decisions of the Antimonopoly Committee on the consideration of complaints are introduced. The legislator decided to expand the range of violations, increase the size of fines and partially change the procedure for prosecution.
Previously, public procurement participants faced the following problems:
- the decisions of the AMCU to eliminate shortcomings were ignored;
- the tender documentation did not comply with the provisions of the law;
- clarifications on the content of the tender documentation are provided or not provided in a timely manner;
- bids of bidders are unreasonably rejected or accepted;
- unfounded and discriminatory conditions of the tender documentation.
The new law stipulates the responsibility of the customer's manager for non-compliance with the AMCU decision on consideration of bidders' complaints. The amount of the fine will range from UAH 34,000 to UAH 85,000.
The manager will also be responsible for concluding a contract that provides for payment for goods, works or services before / without the procurement procedure in accordance with the Law.
There is also liability for failure to provide or late clarification of the content of the tender documents and for exceeding the amount of security of the tender offer established by the Law, which amounts to UAH 1,700. For repeated commission of these offenses during the year, the fine is increased to UAH 3,400.
In addition, a fine of UAH 25,500 to UAH 51,000 was introduced for non-rejection of tender proposals that were subject to rejection and for unjustified rejection.
Tender committees will cease to exist in 2022, and will be replaced by one authorized person, who will be responsible for all violations of the procurement procedure by the customer.
It is expected that the positive case law on bringing the customer's management to justice for violating the Law will make the public procurement system more transparent.
This document provides general information on the subject and does not constitute a legal opinion or recommendation. Consulting a specialist is recommended before taking an action. No claim arising from the content of or relating to this document can be asserted against NAZALI.