Abstract

The digitisation of public procurement, which was aimed at facilitating public procurement proceedings for parties and improving the efficiency of procurement procedures, for instance through the assumed increase in the number of offers submitted, has actually, at least in the initial phase of its operation in Poland, become another barrier blocking access to procurement. In addition to purely technical reasons, often hindering or even preventing the effective submission of an offer, an important problem is the insufficiently regulated issue of legal liability due to faulty ICT used for conducting the proceedings. This article points out the emerging practical problems and indicates the negative consequences for the public procurement system related to inadequate legal protection of the parties participating in the proceedings.

The paper analyses the provisions of the Polish Procurement Law, the Civil Code and the case-law related to the issue of effectively filing declarations of intent, and the liability for them.