Complaint to the Antimonopoly Committee (AMCU) about tender purchases

Public procurement in Ukraine was created with the sole purpose of ensuring the efficiency and transparency of the tendering process, rational use of budget funds, attracting competition between procurement participants and protecting their legitimate interests, as well as reducing the corruption component in general. However, in practice, it often happens that tenderers violate the terms of their holding, which generally leads to illegal winners in public procurement. And therefore consideration of this topic is relevant today. In this article, we will talk about the peculiarities of filing a complaint with the Antimonopoly Committee (AMCU) about tender purchases, taking into account the provisions of the current legislation of Ukraine.

What is a complaint to the Antimonopoly Committee (AMCU)?

The Law of Ukraine “On Public Procurement” stipulates that the AMCU is an appeals body that aims to effectively and impartially protect the rights and legitimate interests of citizens directly participating in public procurement.

A complaint to the AMCU is an appeal directly from tender participants with questions regarding the violation of regulatory acts in the field of public procurement to the commissions created by the AMCU and they are authorized to consider these complaints.

It is worth noting that the decisions of these commissions are made on behalf of AMCU.

In what cases can a complaint be filed with the Antimonopoly Committee (AMCU)?

If you believe that a public procurement participant violates your legal rights and interests, you have the right to file a complaint against him with the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine. That is, any individual or legal entity can file a complaint, but for this you must be registered on the Prozoro electronic platform.

Also, if a supplier of goods or a service provider considers himself a potential winner in a public procurement, he may challenge the requirements of the tender documentation at the stage of submitting proposals. However, if we are talking about contesting the procurement results or the customer’s decisions on rejecting or accepting offers, only the supplier who has previously submitted an offer for such a public procurement can initiate the complaint procedure.

What decisions can the antimonopoly committee make based on the results of the complaint review?

The Law of Ukraine “On Public Procurement” provides that the AMCU has the right, after considering the complaint, to make the following decisions, namely:

• to establish that there are indeed violations of the tendering procedure in accordance with the terms of the current legislation in the contested public procurement, or to note that the violations described by the complainant are absent or cannot be satisfied (including violations of the procedure for publishing or not publishing information about procurement procedures provided for by this Law);
• oblige the customer to take a number of appropriate measures to eliminate established violations, including partial or complete cancellation of its decisions, provision of necessary documents and explanations, elimination of any discriminatory conditions (including those specified in the technical specification, which is part of the tender documentation), bringing the tender documentation into compliance with the requirements of the law, or, in the event that it is impossible to correct the specified violations – cancellation of the procurement procedure.

Do you want to file a complaint with the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine, but you do not know the specifics of writing it? In the event of such a situation, the best way out of this situation is to contact the “Prykhodko and Partners” law office. The lawyers of our company will not only help you to write a complaint in a legally correct way, but will also advise on related issues that will arise during cooperation. So don’t delay and contact us!