Abstract

The article analyses in detail the regulations and procedures relating to the award of public procurement contracts in the areas under the Austrian partition, called Galicia, until 1850.

The central and local government reforms carried out during the reign of Maria Theresa and Joseph II are briefly outlined the introduction, and then entities operating as contracting authorities in Galicia are described.

Further on, legal regulations relating to public procurement in Austria, and also in Galicia are discussed. The course of bidding procedures applied when procuring public deliveries and works derived from previous auctions for selling assets of the state treasury or leasing out public goods and facilities. Then, specialized sectoral regulations were introduced constituting lex specialis with regard to generally applicable laws (contracts for the military or military hospitals, construction contracts). A public procurement contract as well as the preceding procedure of selecting a contractor were considered to be civil law instruments, though the supervision of awarding and performance of public procurement contracts was administrative.

The article outlines formal aspects of public procurement proceedings with many practical examples. However, treasury contracts were awarded generally by auctions, mainly traditional open oral auctions initiated by relevant announcements. An exception were closed auctions initiated by individual invitations. With time, “closed written bid” auctions, similar to tenders, with the possibility of placing further increments on the lowest bid, became popular. The acceptance of the lowest bid led to automatic entering into a preliminary commitment with the winning bidder. The final contract was signed later, after the result of the auction was administratively approved and transaction was proved as safe. The procedure of direct awards, consisting in carrying out exhaustive negotiations with the selected contractor, was used exceptionally in special circumstances.