Abstract

In the Austro-Hungarian Empire public procurement contracts were awarded basing on scattered legal regulations of a state-wide, nation-wide and local character. Those regulations were unified as late as 1909 by a government order. The main procedure was public auction, and in exceptional cases sealed (written) bid procedure or single-source procedure was used. Sometimes, an auction procedure allowed for the possibility of submitting written bids which were opened only after the oral auction had been completed. The basic pre-condition for being allowed to take part in public procurement proceedings was examination of reliability of a potential contractor, which was to assure proper performance. Public procurement regulations also specified indispensable elements of a final contract, which were to protect the interests of the ordering authorities, e.g. contractual penalties for delays. Therefore, they were aimed at guaranteeing proper performance of public procurement contracts with economical spending of public funds. The contracts were subject to the civil law provisions. The public procurement procedure was based on the principle of voluntariness, contracts were obligational, though the award and performance of contracts were supervised administratively.