Fines for the Prague City Hall and Prague Public Transport company in the Open Card case were confirmed
The Prague City Hall violated the law when concluded seven contracts with the company HAGUESS, a.s., on the supply of license for parking card application and for the provision of operation of Prague Card Service Centre. The contracts were concluded in the negotiated procedure without publication without fulfilling statutory conditions for this type of award procedure. Public Transport Company of the Capital City of Prague concluded two contracts and two amendments for the supply of DOS software without awarding a public contract, or in the negotiated procedure without publication, and also concluded the contract on establishment and operation of the DOS contact point and the contract on providing services of drawing up technical documentation and consulting services for the usage of OpenCard in the Prague Integrated Transport system. Not even in these cases, the statutory conditions for awarding a public contract by negotiated procedure without publication were met.
The Prague City Hall selected the supplier in an open procedure, however afterwards it concluded license agreements by which the award of any subsequent related contracts to another bidder in the future was blocked. The contracting entity shall not use negotiated procedure without publication if the conditions for the use of this type of award procedure were caused by the contracting entity itself on the basis of its previous actions. The reasons for awarding contracts by negotiated procedure without publication must be given objectively, independently on the contracting entity.
Public Transport Company first concluded the contract on supply of software for ensuring functionality of DOS in relation to smart cards, with licenses for up to 50,000 users. The initial contract was however significantly extended by subsequent amendments, for example in the number of licenses for up to 650,000 users. The amendments were always awarded to the original supplier. The contracting entity was familiar with the information strategy of the capital city of Prague on the use of smart cards at the time of concluding the contract and must have known that the contract will have to be significantly extended. Therefore it is not possible to consider the conclusion of the contract and related amendments without the award procedures or in the negotiated procedure without publication as a procedure which would be in accordance with the Act on Public Contracts.
The Chairman of the Office rejected the appeal objections of both contracting entities and upheld the first-instance decision.
International and External Relations of the Office
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