The legislation regulating the procurement process defines the composition of the entities that acquire the goods, works, and services necessary for the implementation of their functions exclusively as a result of organizing procurement procedures:
Depending on the volume of procurement and the nature of the goods, works, and services subject to procurement, the legislator has differentiated several procurement procedures, each characterized by specific features. However, the common purpose of organizing different procurement procedures is that the subject of procurement must be acquired with equivalent compensation.
The purpose of acquiring the subject of procurement with equivalent compensation would be formal if the organization of procedures aimed at achieving it were not economical, efficient, and beneficial. The legal regulations of the sector serve to achieve these objectives by establishing the fundamental principles of equality of participation in procurement procedures, organizing them with uniform rules, competitively, transparently, proportionately, publicly, and non-discriminatorily:
The transparency and publicity of the procurement procedure are guaranteed by the requirement to publish documents related to the procurement in the official bulletin and through a number of other mechanisms. The organization of procurement procedures with competitive, uniform, non-discriminatory rules and equal opportunities for participation for all, among other legal mechanisms, guarantees the legislative requirement to define exhaustively the types of procurement procedures and the restrictions limiting their participation.
The purpose of the regulations of the procurement process and the principles of the procurement process have practical significance. The procurement procedures organized by the contracting authorities must not only formally comply with the requirements presented by the current legislation on procurement but also stem from the principles and ensure the realization of the objectives pursued by legal regulations.
For example, a procurement procedure that formally complies with the procedural requirements of the legislation cannot be legal if, as a result of a narrow description of the subject of procurement, the Contracting Authority has limited the participation of potential participants, violating the fundamental principle of organizing the procurement process on competitive and non-discriminatory grounds.
Thus, when there is discretion on the part of those responsible for organizing a specific episode of the procurement procedure, the legality of their actions is assessed based on the literal interpretation of the principles enshrined in the field of procurement.