Although the tender stage mainly comes to mind when looking at the field of public procurement law, implementation of a public procurement contract is a much longer process. Public procurement contracts are defined as private law contracts of the administration and disputes arising from these contracts are resolved with civil justice. Thus, this subject should also be briefly examined.
The most important issue of dispute arising from public procurement contracts is the default of the parties regarding their performance obligations. First of all, when considering the responsibilities of the contractor, the main performance should be the completion and delivery of the contracted work. This must also be done within the periods specified in the contract. Otherwise, the contractor will be in default. The contractor's failure to fulfil their responsibility may result in the termination of the contract, the final guarantee being registered as revenue and the contractor being prohibited from participating in public tenders. As it can clearly be seen, the process should not contradict with the mandatory provisions of the Law on Public Procurement Contracts or the tender contract. Otherwise, there may be some serious repercussions.
Public procurement contracts also impose debts on government administrations. The most important of these debts are to be paid within the period specified in the contract. If these payments are not made, the administration will be in default with the contractor's written warning. In this case, it should be noted that the contractor has certain rights. There are no provisions stated in the Law on Public Procurement Contracts regarding the default of the administration. Thus, in those cases, the Turkish Law of Obligations is referred to. Therefore, the default of the administration gives the contractor the right to terminate the contract and claim positive or negative damage in accordance with their interest.
Aside from the issues mentioned above, there are also disputes between the parties over price discrepancies in public procurement contract applications, suitability of the project, revised projects, and new unit pricing determination. Therefore, administrations should pay attention to the tender specification and contract preparation, and bidders should analyze the entirety of these documents well at the bidding stage.