The Law on Public Procurement of the Republic of Lithuania ("the Law") was lately revised as of the July 7, 2008 official newspaper Valstybes Zinios No I-1491 and the amendments shall come into effect from Sept. 15, 2008. It shall be noted that the procurements commenced upon the enforcement of the amendments of the Law, i.e., Sept. 15, 2008 shall be regulated under the currently effective wording of the Law on Public Procurement. The Law also aims to implement electronic public procurements and introduces the requirement to be effective from Jan. 1, 2009 for the notices and reports to be submitted to the Public Procurement Office only by electronic means. The Public Procurement Office has started drafting the amendments of the rules and recommendations implementing the requirements under the Law.
The Law amends mainly the simplified public procurements in the "classic sector." The Law provides only the main requirements for the simplified procurements, i.e., providing that the contracting authorities shall comply with the fundamental principles and aim of public procurement established in the Law, shall notify about the procurements and submit the reports to the Public Procurement Office, set a time limit for the submission of the tenders of at least 7 days; and introduces that the contracting authority shall perform the procurements according to its own rules of simplified public procurements.
Such provision provides that the procurements with the value of the intended public contracts for supplies, services or works below the EU threshold (i.e., 133,000 euros for supplies and services; and 515,000 euros for works) shall be performed under these rules adopted by the contracting authority. Upon the adoption of the rules of the simplified procurements, the contracting authorities shall publish these rules in the Central Portal of Public Procurement in accordance with the procedure established by the Public Procurement Office within 3 working days after the adoption of the rules (and also in its Web site, if available).
It shall be noted that the Law does not establish a deadline for the adoption of the simplified procurements rules and so the contracting authority not planning to perform procurements right after Sept. 15, 2008 may adopt and announce such rules on the later date, however not later than before the commencement of the procurement. It shall be additionally noted that the Law revokes the requirement to receive the consent from the Public Procurement Office for the termination of a simplified public procurement.
The Law also introduces a new definition for procurements of minor value and establishes new thresholds of such procurements, changing the usual commercial practice thresholds for supplies and services from 75,000 litas (21,722 euros) to 100,000 litas (28 962 euros), and for works, from 300,000 litas (86,886 euros) to 500,000 litas (144,810 euros). Such thresholds shall be estimated for a year period. If the contracting authority has not reached the currently effective threshold by Sept. 15, 2008 for certain services, supplies or works, the contracting authority may perform the procurements after this day and until the end of year 2008 according to the newly introduced thresholds, deducting the already used sums.
It shall be noted that the introduced amendments ease the procedures for the simplified public procurements so that the contracting authorities may perform them in respect to the specifics of their activities and needs. However, the introduction of individual procurement rules by each contracting authority, only base regulation under the Law and lack of the exercise of the simplified procurements according to the contracting authorities rules might cause different interpretations regarding the compliance with the EU and national law requirements that might lead to greater disputes.
Additionally it shall be noted that the Law also specifies the rules regarding the modification of the conditions of the awarded contract by introducing that the contract conditions might be changed during the contract period as long as such changes do not contradict the principles of equal treatment, non-discrimination, mutual recognition, proportionality and transparency, and consent by the Public Procurement Office was received. The Law mitigates the restrictions regarding the cases when the tenders must be rejected by introducing an obligation to the contracting authorities to request the supplier to correct a mistake in calculation of the price provided in the tender, if so, however without not allowing to change the tender price announced during the opening of the envelopes meeting.
Rasa Narbutaite is an associate advocate at Jurevicius Balciunas & Bartkus, a member of Baltic Legal Solutions, a pan-Baltic integrated legal network of law firms including Teder Glikman & Partnerid in Estonia and Kronbergs Cukste in Latvia, dedicated to providing a quality "one-stop shop" approach to clients' needs in the Baltics.
