Abstract

Continued practical difficulties forced out a change of Art. 90 of the Public Procurement Act with respect to the premises and method of verification of an abnormally low bid price in public procurement proceedings. Harmfulness of the practices consisting in winning contracts by putting forward underpriced bid is obvious for both honest competitors and public interests. However, abnormally low priced offers must not be disqualified automatically. It is necessary to verify individual pricing factors with the participation of the bidder concerned. Therefore, of foremost importance are the premises for initiating such verification, especially the grounds for requesting the bidder to provide explanations, and then it is crucial to pass the burden of proof onto the bidder, namely with respect of the actual possibilities to implement the contract at the lower price. All circumstances justifying the reduction of contract implementation costs count. If the bidder evades to provide necessary explanations or when the explanations provided to the contracting authority are insufficient or they do not adequately justify the reasons for price reduction, the questioned bid must be rejected.