Latest changes in Hungarian public procurement law for year-end

Hungary

Hungarian lawmakers recently passed an act, which amended Act CXLIII of 2015 on Public Procurement.

Most of the changes in the amendment law concern the implementation of the electronic procurement system (EKR), which went into force on 15 April 2018. Since then, usage of the EKR revealed that a number of changes were necessary to the existing legislation in order to lessen uncertainty. The amendment reflects these changes by introducing a number of more-or-less technical modifications related to communication during public procurements, submission of bids, and publication rules.

Besides changes related to the EKR, the following modifications were also introduced:

  • The public procurement threshold for state and EU-subsidised procurements is raised to the EU procurement threshold (EUR 221,000) for supply and service contracts, and to HUF 300 million (EUR 928,800) for works contracts.
  • Subsidised procurements of churches are no longer subject to public procurement rules.
  • Limits were ended that restricted subcontractor involvement in works contracts to 65% of the contract value, and subcontractor limitation is no longer applicable to public procurement contracts.
  • The minimum deadline for the submission of bids was lowered to 30 days for open procedures and to 25 days for restricted procedures.
  • Certain type of procurements with values under the EU limits became exempt from public procurement obligations, such as ordering products, services or works made by start cooperative societies with annual net revenue not exceeding HUF 10 million (EUR 31 000).
  • In case of review by the Public Procurement Dispute Board, procedural deadlines were amended and clarified, and the procedural fine was increased to HUF 1 million (EUR 3,100).