SWZ (Specyfikacja Warunków Zamówienia) — the Polish tender specification

The SWZ is the document that defines a Polish tender: what is being bought, who may bid, how offers are evaluated and on what contract terms. Unusually, its contents are not left to template convention — arts. 134 and 281 of Prawo zamówień publicznych enumerate a statutory minimum content list. That turns a missing item from an inconvenience into a breach you can name and challenge.

What the SWZ is

Specyfikacja Warunków Zamówienia — the specification of the terms of the contract, always SWZ — is the core tender document in Polish procurement. It is where the description of the subject matter, the conditions of participation, the grounds for exclusion, the evidence you must supply, the award criteria and the draft contract terms all live.

Availability

Art. 133 ust. 1 requires the buyer, in an open procedure above the EU thresholds, to provide on the website of the proceeding free, full, direct and unrestricted access to the SWZ from the day the contract notice is published in the Official Journal of the European Union, and for no less than up to the day the contract is awarded.

Art. 280 does the same for the basic procedure, counting from publication of the notice in the Biuletyn Zamówień Publicznych, and specifies that in the art. 275 pkt 3 variant what is published is not an SWZ but a description of needs and requirements.

There are two exceptions in each case. If part of the SWZ cannot be posted online because of one of the situations in art. 65 ust. 1, where the Act permits departure from electronic communication, the buyer transmits it another way stated in the notice. If part cannot be posted because the information in it is confidential, the notice must specify how to access it and what confidentiality requirements attach.

The practical point: you should never be asked to pay for, or apply for, the specification. It is on the proceeding's website on day one.

The statutory content list

This is what distinguishes the SWZ from a specification in markets where the buyer's template decides what goes in.

Art. 134 ust. 1, for the open procedure above the EU thresholds, enumerates twenty-one items the SWZ must contain as a minimum. They include the buyer's name, address, telephone number, email address and the website of the proceeding; the website where amendments and related documents will be published; the type of procedure; the description of the subject matter; information on any subject-related evidence (przedmiotowe środki dowodowe); the period of performance; the grounds for exclusion by reference to art. 108; the conditions for participation; the list of contractor-related evidence (podmiotowe środki dowodowe); the means of electronic communication and the alternative means; the persons authorised to communicate; the period for which offers are binding; how to prepare an offer; how and by when to submit it; the time of opening; how to calculate the price; a description of the award criteria together with their weightings; the formalities required after the offer is selected; the projected provisions of the contract; and an instruction on the legal remedies available.

Art. 134 ust. 2 adds a further set of items required conditionally — where the buyer permits partial offers, requires performance security, allows variants, will hold an electronic auction, imposes employment requirements, and so on.

Art. 281 ust. 1 does the equivalent for the basic procedure with nineteen items. The list is close to art. 134 but not identical, and it contains one item unique to this procedure: information on whether the buyer will select the most advantageous offer with or without negotiations. Art. 281 ust. 2 lists the conditional items, including grounds for exclusion under art. 109, conditions of participation, division into lots, variant offers, employment requirements, wadium, a site visit, foreign currencies, framework agreements, electronic auctions and catalogues, and performance security.

Two of these matter more than they look. The projected provisions of the contract are part of the SWZ, which means you know the contract terms before you price rather than after you win. And the award criteria with their weightings must be stated, so the evaluation arithmetic is disclosed in advance.

Questions and challenges

Art. 284, in the basic procedure, obliges the buyer to answer a clarification request only if it arrives at least four days before the submission deadline, and requires the answer promptly and no later than two days before it; a late answer forces an extension.

If the SWZ is defective, that is a challengeable act. Art. 513 makes an act of the buyer inconsistent with the Act appealable to the Krajowa Izba Odwoławcza, and art. 515 gives you 5 days from publication of the notice below the EU thresholds, or 10 days at or above them, to challenge the content of the notice or the procurement documents. Those windows are short and they run from publication, not from when you noticed.

What to do about it

On first reading, check the SWZ against the statutory list rather than against your expectations. If the weightings of the award criteria are missing, if the projected contract provisions are absent, if the evidence required is not specified, those are not oversights to work around — they are omissions of items art. 134 or art. 281 requires, and you can say so with a provision number.

Read the draft contract at the same time as the technical description; in Poland you are pricing both.

And decide on challenges immediately. Ask your clarification questions by day three of a seven-day window, and if the answer does not fix a defect, the appeal clock on the documents is already most of the way through.

Related terms

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