Long-drawn-out proceedings conducted before the National Appeals Chamber voided the in-house procurement for municipal waste collection by MPO Sp. z o.o which resulted in relaunching the procurement procedure under the competitive dialogue negotiations. The law firm Jacek Kosiński Advocates and Legal Advisers experts has represented the capital city of Warsaw.

The in-house procurement related to the collection of municipal waste by MPO Sp. z o.o. for a period of 4 years, beginning on 1 January 2019, from inhabited real properties located within the capital city of Warsaw. The contract value amounted to PLN 520 million net. Two tenderers, Suez and BYŚ, lodged their appeals to the National Appeal Chamber, stating that the in-house procurement violates competition.

– In-house procurement is a negotiated contract awarded to a subsidiary of the contracting authority, with over 90% of its business activity being performed only for the contracting authority. In such a case, the contractor is treated as if he was part of the contracting authority. Only formally the contractor is considered a separate company. Therefore, competition violation is not the case here. Such cases are still considered precedent in Poland; only a few such cases were settled so far. – explains Jacek Kosiński of the law firm Jacek Kosiński Advocates and Legal Advisers.

The contracting authority decided to void the procurement procedure due to the lack of the possibility to conclude the negotiations within the time allowing to ensure continuity of services. For this reason, the procurement procedure for municipal waste collection will be reopened, but this time as an open bidding competition, e.g. in the form of a tender. The in-house procurement contract was due to expire after 4 years but now this time may be shorter.

The team representing the capital city of Warsaw included: advocate Jacek Kosiński, attorney-at-law Paweł Jadczak and dr Łukasz Goniak of the law firm Jacek Kosiński Advocates and Legal Advisers.