The Office for the Protection of Competition has punished the city of Břeclav by imposing a record CZK 1 million fine for the city’s failure to keep public procurement documentation, which is an administrative offence. The documents in this case concerned the call for study proposals regarding the full reconstruction of the public lighting system in Břeclav. The Public Procurement Act requires entities to preserve all public procurement document for five years after the announcement of a contract, any changes to the contract or the cancellation of procurement proceedings, and this applies even in cases where there was only a call for proposals and no tender proceedings materialised. In the case at hand, the city of Břeclav cancelled the call for proposals and the documentation was not preserved. In handing down the fine, the Office for the Protection of Competition especially took note of the fact that the actions of the city had foreclosed the possibility of a review of its decision. This case suggests that the Office may be moving in the direction of increasing fines in contrast with other cases where it sanctioned the failure to keep tender documentation with fines at the lower end of the statutory range. Under the current wording of the Public Procurement Act, the administrative offence of not preserving tender documentation can attract a fine of up to CZK 20 million.
