Problem zamówień publicznych w PRL

The article characterises selected legal solutions applied in the process of public contract award in the realities of the nationalised centrally-planned economy in the times of the Polish People’s Republic. In the study, manifestations of discrimination of private businesses in the access to public contracts are presented. Such discrimination was one of the foundations for the legislation applicable at the time. The article also highlights other features of legal acts of statutory rank governing contracts awarded by state-owned organisational units, such as the fragmented nature of their regulations, including the omission of regulations governing the procedure of reaching an agreement and executing a contract. This allowed formulating conclusions about the merely superficial role of the provisions on supplies, services, and works for state entities and the fundamental inability of these regulations to play the role attributed to public procurement in the market economy, consisting in deploying the mechanism of competition between entrepreneurs for cost-efficiencies in public spending.

Transforming Public Procurement Contracts Into Smart Contracts

The terms governing the provision of supplies, services, or works by an economic operator to a governmental entity are set into a public contract that is signed, following a procurement process. This article explores whether the public administration can utilise smart contracts to incorporate the terms governing the provision of supplies, services, or works. The fundamental elements of a contract are assessed, in order to determine whether a smart contract can be considered as fulfilling these requirements. Following this assessment, the main hurdles to the use of smart contracting are examined and a possible solution proposed. The case for utilising smart contracting within the realm of public procurement is finally advocated.

In-house contracts in the European Union law

After successful implementation of public procurement procedure, a purchaser concludes public contract with a selected bidder. If, according to the European union law and Republic of Serbia domestic law, the purchaser and the bidder are considered as "affiliated" subjects, they are not obliged to apply public procurement rules and the contract they are concluding in that case is being called in-house. In order to avoid invoking an in-house contractual relation in such a situations where public procurement rules should be applied, it is important to recognize characteristics of such a contractual relation. This work presents criteria for determining in-house contract according to the European union law. The aim of the author is for domestic purchasers and bidders to better understand norms that have been taken from European union law to new Law on Public Procurement of the Republic of Serbia, so that their proper implementation can be expected.