Economic self-government and public procurement in Poland

In Polish law, economic self-government has not been regulated in an independent and uniform way, but it plays an important role in public procurement proceedings regulated by the Act of 29 January 2004, i.e. the Public Procurement Law. A specific group of economic self-government organisations should be, along with other entities, included in the category of participants in the field of public procurement. These entities may first of all make use of – to a certain extent – legal protection measures, thus ensuring the protection of the interests of the members of the organisation as well as the protection of the public procurement market against the malfunctioning of the entities awarding contracts. Economic self-government organisations may also participate in public procurement as contractors, despite the fact that such rights have not been clearly defined in the regulations. As follows from the acts determining the legal status of individual organisations of entrepreneurs, they have the opportunity to act as public procurement contractors. They meet formal requirements to perform such a role under the provisions of the Public Procurement Law. Therefore, one should notice the need for uniform regulation of the legal status of economic self-government in Poland, postulate the possibility of active participation of the self-government concerned at each stage of the procedure for the award of a public contract and significantly extend the powers of self-government as part of the appeal procedure.