The meaning of the description of the subject of the contract .

The manner in which the subject of the contract will be described significantly affects the further course of the procedure, is reflected in the quality and quantity of submitted tenders and determines the essential provisions of the subsequent public procurement contract. The report on the study on low competition on the public procurement market conducted by the Public Procurement Office shows that entrepreneurs mentioned an unclear description of the subject of the contract as the reason for low interest in participating in the procedures.

For the above reasons, it is so important that contracting authorities exercise due diligence and describe the subject of the contract in a reliable manner, and the time spent on preparing the description of the subject of the contract will certainly pay off at further stages of the procedure.

So how to prepare a description of the subject of the contract so that the submitted offers meet the expectations of the contracting authority? The provisions of the Public Procurement Law contain practical guidelines on how to prepare a description of the subject of the contract.

The description is clear and exhaustive.

The subject of the contract is described in an unambiguous and exhaustive manner, using sufficiently precise and understandable terms, taking into account the requirements and circumstances that may affect the preparation of the offer. The unambiguity of the description means that the description cannot raise any doubts, it is to precisely define what constitutes the subject of the contract. When describing the subject of the contract, the contracting authority should prevent contractors from making any interpretation of this description. An exhaustive description is, in turn, a description that presents the subject of the contract in detail and in a comprehensive manner. The description should therefore include all aspects and activities that make up the subject of the contract.

Addressees of the description.

The requirement for contracting authorities to use sufficiently precise and understandable terms should be applied to the circle of recipients of the description of the subject of the contract, which are contractors – professional entities operating in a given industry. The wording used in the description of the subject of the contract should be understandable to them. For example, an order for the supply of computer software should be described using professional terms that are used by IT specialists in their work, even though the ordering party is an entity from a completely different industry.

Correct CPV codes.

To describe the subject of the contract, the Act requires the use of the names and codes of the Common Procurement Vocabulary, i.e. a classification prepared specifically for the purposes of public procurement. This requirement is very practical from the point of view of increasing competitiveness. The use of appropriate codes by contracting authorities allows contractors, regardless of the country they come from and the language they use, to identify the subject of the contract and participate in the procedure.

In the next part of the series: about the impact of the description of the subject of the contract on the group of contractors, the relationship between the requirements of the contracting authority and the subject of the contract and proportionality.