Abnormally low tenders. Contracting authorities in Poland rarely initiate the procedure of examining abnormally low tenders - it was engaged in 22% of cases. Procedure of accounting for a price was used three times more often in the case of open tenders as compared to restricted tenders. It was most frequently applied in proceedings conducted by PKP XXX XX (33%), and least often in those conducted by local governments (16%). The study showed that the contracting authority shall apply the procedure of explaining an abnormally low tender in a situation where the tender of one contractor deviates significantly from other tenders. however, tenders whose value is significantly lower than the estimated value of the contract indicated by the contracting authority in the description of the subject-matter of the contract is not considered a reason for requesting contractors to provide explanations. The analysis of documentation and the CAWI questionnaire indicate that in proceedings covered by this study, five tenders were excluded as abnormally low; they represent approximately 10% of all tenders in relation to which explanatory proceedings have been initiated. In the vast majority of cases (nearly 90%), explanations submitted by contractors led contracting authorities to assume that the proposed tender was substantially justified and did not provide grounds for the rejection of a tender. In general, contracting authorities (62%) are of the opinion that, in the analysed procedures, tenders that have been selected did not give grounds for suspecting that they were abnormally low; at the same time, 62% of them believe that not all abnormally low tenders were rejected. Contracting authorities do not perceive the rejection of abnormally low tenders as a method of preventing major problems at the stage of contract execution - more than half of the contracting authorities did not agree with the statement according to which the rejection of abnormally low tenders helped to sidestep problems at the implementation stage. Contracting authorities referred to the lack of internal procedures determining the situations in which an investigation into abnormally low tender should be initiated. At the same time, the vast majority of respondents are of the opinion that the problem of low tenders is important, and an explanatory procedure is needed. An example of a different approach to the identification and explanation of an abnormally low tender is the procedure based on detailed calculations, which is ...
