Pursuant to Section 17(1) of the RPVS Act: “A person who is not a public sector partner may also be entered in the register in accordance with the procedure and under the conditions set forth in this Act, if they so request.” For which practical cases is the institution of “voluntary registration” as defined above intended? How is it possible in practice to determine that a person registered in the RPVS acted in accordance with Section 17(1) of the RPVS Act (and is therefore not a public sector partner)? How should one proceed if a person registered under the procedure set forth in Section 17(1) of the RPVS Act—and thus was not a public sector partner at the time of registration—but later became one? Is it necessary (in light of Section 17(2) of the RPVS Act) to inform the registry court of this and amend the registration? If so, how?
In practice, there are cases where a business expects to participate in multiple public procurement procedures in which the contract value exceeds the thresholds specified in the Public Procurement Act, and anticipates that it could be the successful bidder in at least one of these procedures. Since the entity must be registered in the registry by the time the contract is signed at the latest, it wishes to fulfill this obligation well in advance. Nevertheless, the ZRPVS does not require bidders to register; registration is required no later than the moment the contract is concluded.
The ZRPVS does not require the entity to notify the registering authority that it has “transformed” from a voluntarily registered entity into a public sector partner. The provisions of the ZRPVS apply equally to a public sector partner as to a voluntarily registered entity, with the exception of sanctions, which cannot be imposed on a voluntarily registered entity. If a court is ruling on a breach of obligations under the ZRPVS, it must also address the question of whether the entity was voluntarily registered and thus will not impose a sanction for the violation, or whether the entity meets the conditions set forth in the ZRPVS and is therefore a public sector partner.
