Consultations of the second volume of the Recommendations of the President of the Public Procurement Office on IT systems procurement have been completed.
The development of the Recommendations is a response to the growing demand for contracts related to the IT world, because of the progressive computerization of subsequent sectors. Volume I of the Recommendation was published in June 2020. It dealt with preparatory activities before the commencement of public procurement proceedings for IT systems.
The newly developed Volume II of the Recommendations deals with the description of the subject of the contract itself. Another important issue is the preparation of a public procurement procedure for an IT system, which is also covered in the Recommendations.
The document is a collection of good practices and useful tips. The recipients of the document are contracting authorities facing the challenge of conducting a complex procedure of awarding contracts for IT systems. The Recommendations were developed by a working group created by representatives of the Public Procurement Office and representatives of IT industry associations willing to participate in the project.
The document was published on the Public Procurement Office website to make participation in the recommendations available to the widest possible group of entities.
The long-awaited recommendations contain general advice as well as guidelines on highly specialized elements concerning the procurement of IT systems. The contracting authorities will find therein, among other things, guidance on awarding contracts for implementation, maintenance, or development of systems, as well as on contracts with the mixed subject matter, contracts involving SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS services. There are also tips on the correct way to define system parameters and describe equivalence criteria, as well as an assessment of the possibility of awarding contracts in the Time&Material model. A lot of attention was also paid to issues concerning the acquisition of rights to use intellectual property rights to the system, knowledge transfer, and other ways to prevent vendor lock-in.
The recommendations put significant emphasis on a circumstance well known to the industry. All orders for IT systems, just like the systems themselves, have their own, usually unique characteristics. This, in turn, should in each case individualize the preparation of the contract and the development of the tender documentation.
This brings up one of the most important elements and responsibilities of the contracting authority. It is about defining as precisely as possible its expectations for the system itself as well as for the ordered services and accompanying services. These determinants absolutely must determine the award of a contract that fully meets the needs of the contracting authority.
Many people are impatiently waiting for the publication of the final version of the Recommendation. There are still new questions related to the application of the Public Procurement Law, which came into force on 1 January 2021.