Whether a Change of Contractual Conditions of the Consensus During Negotiation Does Not Violate the Principals of Equal Rights, Non-Discrimination and Transparency?

„Lietuvoje, kaip ir daugelyje pasaulio valstybių auga investicijų poreikis viešajai infrastruktūrai ir viešosioms paslaugoms plėtoti bei jų kokybei tobulinti. Ribotos viešojo sektoriaus galimybės yra skatinamos ieškoti naujų priemonių ir galimybių“.1 Viešojo ir privataus sektorių bendradarbiavimas yra apibrėţiamas kaip bet koks viešojo ir privataus sektoriaus susitarimas, kuriuo privačioms organizacijoms leidţiama veikti srityse, iki šiol išskirtinai priklausiusiose viešajam sektoriui. Viena iš viešojo ir privataus sektorių bendradarbiavimo formų yra koncesijos sutartis, pastarąjį dešimtmetį populiarėjantis reiškinys Lietuvos ir Europos lygiu. Atsiţvelgiant į koncesijos sutarties specifiką suteikiančiajai institucijai daţnu atveju yra sudėtinga iš anksto, t.y. konkurso sąlygų sutarties projekte, pasiūlyti tokį įsipareigojimų, teisių, rizikų sureguliavimo derinį, kuris atitiktų potencialių koncesininkų poreikius, todėl visuotinai pripaţįstama, kad koncesijos suteikimo procedūrą privalo apimti derybų etapą2. Tokį derybų etapą numato ir Koncesijų įstatymas.3 Kita vertus, kai šalys derybose derasi dėl tam tikrų dalykų, turi būti uţtikrinimi lygiateisiškumo, nediskriminavimo ir skaidrumo principai, todėl pripaţintina, kad derybų apimtis yra ribota. Koncesijų įstatyme yra įtvirtinta, kad derybose negali būti nukrypstama nuo reikalavimo, kad koncesininkas įgyvendintų konkurso sąlygose išdėstytas technines, finansines ir komercines sąlygas. Vykdant koncesijos sutarčių skyrimo procedūras koncesijos sutarties dalykas, sutarties skyrimo kriterijai ir būtinieji reikalavimai negali būti derybų objektu. Tačiau, tai reiškia, kad pirminė sutartis, greičiausiai, šiek tiek ar daug pasikeis. Jei turim derybas, natūralu, kad pasikeičia sutarties pirminės redakcijos projektas. Tad problema kyla šioje vietoje, kokios turi būti derybų ribos ir dėl kokių dalykų galima derėtis derybų etape nepaţeidţiant kitų konkurso dalyvių teisių. Remiantis išanalizuota literatūra, Europos Bendrijos ir Lietuvos teisės aktais, teismų jurisprudencija darytina išvada tokia, kad derybose naujai sulygtos sąlygos neturi būti tokios, kurių atsiradimas lyginant su pirminiu sutarties projektu, būtų leidusios dalyvauti dėl koncesijos sutarties suteikimo konkurse nedalyvavusiems subjektams ar kitų kandidatų varţymuisi pateiktus pasiūlymus būtų galima laikyti tinkamais.In Lithuania like in the majority of other countries around the globe the need of investments and their improvement regarding public infrastructure and public services is growing at a fast pace. Limitations of the public sector concerning the possibilities to fund these objectives promote the search for new tools and opportunities to achieve these purposes. The co-operation of the public and private sectors is defined as any kind of agreement that involves both sectors, which allows private organizations to function within the field that previously was only governed by the public sector. In the international practice one of the co-operation types is the partnership of private and public sector (PPS) that creates opportunities to attract private funds in order to meet the needs of the public sector. Broadly this partnership can be defined as a co-operation of both public and private sectors in order to accomplish various projects involving infrastructure or public services. Thus, the co-operation between these two sectors is inevitable. As an alternative to traditional ways of supplementing public services, the partnership of public and private sector encompasses a wide spectrum of various forms and mechanisms. It could vary from agreements made by county with a private communal office in order to create a system for trash extermination to an establishment of a joint company, which would govern the building and exploitation of a new atomic power plant. These contracts are usually distinguished by establishing a clear partnership type regarding PPS terms; thus, it could be an agreement implemented on a contractual basis or an agreement based on an institutional basis. The European Commission distinguish two types of co-operation of the public and private sector: (1) institutional – when a company of mixed funds is required to be established in order to accomplish a goal; (2) contractual – when a certain goal is achieved by constructing agreements (consensuses, contracts based on a public purchases, joint practises, and other various agreements that are determined by the law). It has to be noted that certain concepts such as consensus, PPS projects, long-term lease, public purchases and others because they denote different ways of partnership of government and public sectors; in other words these concepts could be ineligible. Even though the contracts of purchases and consensuses are regulated by different laws, they in their essence involve similar legal correlations, which have similar aims of regulation. Consensus a try way agreement between the granting instruction, the provider of the service, and the customer. A public purchase is a two way agreement between a service provider and the organization that buys the service, which in consequence pays for the bought service and takes the economic risk of the purchase. The correlation of a consensus and a public purchase are different in the way and process of creating a contract. In case of a consensus provider of the service receives a right to use the service it provides as part of the payment. The concessionaire recognizes the risks of the purchase while the pay is usually arranged by the services user. Although, there is no singular definition of consensus there are certain attributes that allows to distinguish it from other partnerships or public and private sectors; these attributes involves such signs as a long time-span of arranging the contract, a clear allocation of possible liabilities to all the parties, a clear allocation of possible risk, while the majority of these risks are moved upon the private buyer, financial commitments. A major matter for the public sector regarding the co-operation of private and public sector is a selection of private party in a fair competition manner. Before making any kind of partnership contract it is essential to establish an effective and clear competition within the contestant participants within the market. This kind of competition allows the public sector to choose the most effective private partner. The competition allows the governmental institutions to select a partner in a most rational way; due to this information, it is possible to choose such a partner that would meet all the requirements and would fulfil the goal in question. In order to ensure the best selection of the partner it is important to oblige the principles of transparency and non-discrimination. It is important to act according to these principles in order to avoid violating the public and private interests, which are quintessentially different. The public sector seeks to receive the best possible service, while the private sector seeks profit. The equality of rights is important to every legal form that involves the co-operation of public and private sector. According to this principle the procedures of selection of a private party must be determined in an objective and clear way as well as they have to oblige to the rules and requirements. If certain predetermined rules do not exist the participating private parties must be selected according to objective criteria. The principal of non-discrimination defined the object of purchase; the technical specifications cannot defy the concrete process of making, the trade mark, patent, country of origin or production because these specifications might provide extra help for the participating parties or could even rule out some of the participants. The transparency principal is a principal that requires for the conditions of the contest to be clear and understandable; also, it requires that all the conditions that were set could not be changed. By obliging to the transparency principal allows to foresee the decision that should be made during the contest. It is quite natural to agree that the principal of partnership between the public and private sector is the essential part of the partnership concept because without clearly stating them it would be impossible to accomplish any kind of goal regarding such co-operation. The implementation of projects regarding co-operation between the public and private sector is a difficult and lengthily process, which is formed not only by the configuration of partnership but by the selection of partners, negotiations regarding the requirements of the contract, risk management, project management, and the surveillance of the project management. Taking into account the difficult specifics of the co-operation between public and private sector, often there is no singular way to formulate the technical requirements of an object, which would fulfil the public subject’s needs and aims, or would defy the objects legal status or its financial consent. Whatever the form of co-operation regarding the partnership of private and public sector is employed, for the successful contest, some sort of negotiations will be required. Each form of such co-operation has a different kind of way to regulate the negotiation. For instance, according to the Public procurement law the negotiations are not mandatory during the public purchase. However, in the contest regarding the grant of the consensus once of the mandatory stages is the negotiation, which’s aim is to come to a compromise between the participant of the contest and the institution that grants the consensus. It needs to be noted that the negotiation cannot be used as a tool to distort the technical, financial, or commercial criteria. While appointing the contractual conditions of the consensus, the conditions of the agreement and its main requirements cannot be an object of the negotiation. However this means that the initial agreement will be changed in a slight way. If negotiation takes place it is quite natural that the primary draft of the project changes. A change is fundamental if its implementation within the agreement would quintessentially change the outcomes that the participants would provide. It such change takes place a new contest must be organized. The legal provisions concerning public purchases and consensuses foresees such changes only if the principals of equal right, non-discrimination and transparency are taken into account.Teisės fakultetasVytauto Didžiojo universiteta