Abstract

The August 2014 amendment of the Public Procurement Act changed the nature of the legal grounds for exclusion of a contractor from bidding because of violation of occupational duties. Exclusion is no longer obligatory, but facultative, and dependent on an advance reservation in the terms of reference, which give the current economic reality should be critically assessed. As regards the circumstances of exclusion, the amendment reflects the stipulations of EU directives. Doubts are aroused only by the technical method of implementation, under which reference to the traditional Polish legal terminology was unnecessarily rejected. As compared with the hitherto scope of the grounds for exclusion it was expanded as it covers not only defaults in the course of implementing previous contracts, but also any other material defaults of the contractor in the last 3 years. On the other hand, in accord with the European principle of proportionality, only significant defaults are taken into account, and in addition the contractor himself may rebut the presumption of non-credibility by proving that the causes of the violation of the law have been permanently removed.