Abstract

The article discusses the issue of the non-custodial preventive measure laid down in Art. 276 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, namely the prohibition to apply for public contracts for the duration of the proceedings. Four groups of issues were analysed: the merits of distinguishing a new measure, its functions, the temporal boundaries, and the possibility to set off the period thereof against the penal measures ruled by the court. The specificity of this prohibition is that it may be applied to a very limited group of offences, specifically those against public tendering (Art. 297 of the Penal Code) and fraud relating to public procurement. The article notes that it is only of a preventive nature and cannot secure a proper course of the proceedings being merely an instrument to exclude certain business operators from the public procurement procedure. In addition, the wording “for the duration of the proceedings” indicates a certain automatism in its application for the duration of the entire proceedings excluding the need to adapt the preventive measures to the procedural situation of the defendant. It is also controversial that the legislator did not introduce an analogous prohibition in the Penal Code. Therefore, the possibility of setting it off against another, closest penal measure - the prohibition to conduct certain economic activities - is questionable.