Do you know what “normal market availability” means?
The Public Procurement Act, which largely determines public procurement procedures, is based on the principle of normal market availability. The contracting authority is obliged to award contracts for goods, services and construction work that are normally available on the market using the electronic marketplace established by the Ministry of the Interior of the Slovak Republic. On the other hand, they are obliged to award contracts for goods, services and construction works that are not commonly available on the market without using the electronic marketplace.
The concept of common availability is defined in Section 2(5)(o) of Act No. 343/2015 Coll. on public procurement and on amendments and supplements to certain acts (hereinafter referred to as the “Act”). According to the above legal provision, commonly available goods, construction works or services on the market are goods, construction works or services defined by the Act as follows:
"1. they are not manufactured, delivered, performed or provided on the basis of specific and unique requirements for a given case,
2. they are offered in a form in which they are delivered, performed or provided without any major modifications to their characteristics or elements, and at the same time
3. are generally in the form in which they are delivered, performed or provided to the contracting authority and the contracting entity, delivered, performed or provided to consumers and other persons on the market."
Furthermore, according to the provisions of Section 5 (6) of the Act, "Commonly available goods, construction works or services pursuant to paragraph 5(o) are, in particular, goods, construction works or services intended to meet the normal operating needs of the contracting authority and the contracting entity", whereas, within the meaning of the following paragraph 7, commonly available goods or services pursuant to paragraph 5(o) are, in particular, goods and services of a consumer nature.
If you are interested in obtaining advice on public procurement, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Source:
Interpretative opinion of the Public Procurement Office No. 2/2017 deals with the categorization of construction works as not commonly available on the market.
Interpretative opinion of the Public Procurement Office No. 1/2017 deals with the categorization of intellectual contracts as not commonly available on the market.
