The pandemic has severely complicated the situation on the public procurement market, making it difficult for contractors to perform previously concluded contracts. Meanwhile, ordering parties are sometimes concerned about the impact of the current situation on contract execution.
According to Rzeczpospolita daily, some contracting authorities are of the opinion that modifying contracts, refraining from imposing contractual penalties or assessing their amount involves a breach of public finance discipline.
However, in the “Covidium Act” of March last year, the legislature explicitly decided that a determination that a pandemic has an impact on the performance of a public contract allows the contracting authorities to take the above-mentioned actions WITHOUT BEING RESPONSIBLE FOR INFRINGEMENT OF PUBLIC FINANCE DISCIPLINE.
Unfortunately, in practice, demonstrating such an impact can be difficult and requires the CONTRACTOR to PROVIDE RESPONSIBLE ARGUMENTS AND EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT IT. For example, documenting delivery difficulties.