ZOPI sent to the state administration, including the Ministry of Infrastructure, the President of the Public Procurement Office and the President of the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Poland, a letter regarding the need to introduce systemic solutions for the valuation of intellectual services in public procurement. The association indicates that the current model, based mainly on the price criterion and established tender practices, does not take into account the specificity of services requiring knowledge and experience, and its effects are visible at all stages of the investment process. At the same time, ZOPI presents specific proposals for solutions that limit the phenomenon of abnormally low prices and strengthen real quality criteria.
Effects visible at the implementation stage
In the opinion of ZOPI, the problem of pricing design and engineering services is of a systemic nature. Non-price criteria often have no significant impact on the selection of the offer, and order values are determined on the basis of historical data, which do not reflect current market realities. Downward price pressure is not balanced by a reliable assessment of risks, responsibilities or actual workload.
The consequences of underestimating intellectual services are revealed during the implementation of the investment in the form of documentation corrections, design changes, contract disputes and cost increases. It is the quality of design and engineering work that largely determines the safety, pace of implementation and predictability of public investments.
Cheap design costs the most / Press materials
A system that requires change
According to ZOPI, without consistent changes in the public procurement system, it is impossible to realistically improve the quality of intellectual services. In the letter, the Association indicates four key areas requiring changes: the introduction of a reference minimum price as the threshold for examining an abnormally low price, the development of a central methodology for its calculation, a real strengthening of quality criteria in relation to the price criterion, and the preparation of a catalog of quality criteria along with the rules of their application.
ZOPI emphasizes that the effective application of quality criteria requires clear guidelines for contracting entities. The association points out that similar mechanisms already operate in other European Union countries and help protect quality without eliminating fair competition.
ZOPI position
As Anna Oleksiewicz, President of ZOPI, emphasizes: “This is not a dispute about rates, but about the quality and safety of public investments. Underestimating the work of designers and engineers leads to apparent savings in the investment process, which later generate real costs, delays and problems at the implementation stage. The quality of intellectual services has a direct impact on the investment process, the number of design changes and contractual risks, and, consequently, on the final cost and durability of the constructed facilities.
Importantly, we do not stop at appeals and demands, but present specific solutions developed within the Association based on a comprehensive assessment of the real possibilities of introducing changes. This is not a wish list, but a set of precise tools that do not require revolutionary legislative changes, and the implementation of which will enable the public procurement system in the field of design and supervision services to be based on real, and not declarative, quality criteria.”
ZOPI calls for the initiation of a dialogue between the public administration and market participants, in particular with the Public Procurement Office, the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Poland and the Ministry of Infrastructure.
