Greater transparency and efficiency - What will recently adopted amendments to Public Procurements Law bring?

With the aim of improving the transparency and efficiency of public procurements, the National Parliament adopted amendments to the Public Procurements Law (PPL) on July 31st, which then came into force on August 12th. Amendments were called for by the Public Procurement Development Strategy that the Serbian government adopted for the period 2014-2018, and they also represent the first phase of further alignment with new directives of the EU, Predrag Jovanovic, director of the Public Procurement Administration (PPA), points out in a talk with eKapija.

- Adopted amendments are expected to boost efficiency and transparency of public procurement procedure, increase competitiveness, cut costs, improve the quality of offer, as well as promote the criteria of economically most favorable bids because the cheapest is often not the most favorable as well - Jovanovic stresses.

Among the logical effects of the adoption of amendments to the Public Procurements Law is a more efficient implementation of public procurement procedures, a more cost-efficient use of public funds, and a greater competitiveness in public procurement procedures. However, Dragan Dobrasinovic, the chairman of the Managing Board of the Toplica Center for Democracy and Human Rights is sceptical and believes this is not going to happen given that a large number of adopted amendments are disputable and as such, they will represent a serious source of abuses in the following period.

Efficiency of procedures

In order to boost efficiency, amendments will help both public procurement procedures and the process of protecting the rights last shorter. Now some deadlines for the submission of bids are shorter, depending on the type of the procedure and the estimated value of the public procurement.

Many public procurement procedures lasted for too long owing to a large number of submitted requests for the protection of rights, especially in the phase preceding the decision on the most favorable bid. Dragan Dobrasinovic explains that adopted amendments to the Public Procurements Law have changed a number of provisions concerning the submission of requests for the protection of rights, which will contribute to greater efficiency of public procurement procedures.

- However, other amendments related to the submission of requests for the protection of rights will, on one hand, accelerate public procurement procedures, but it will also jeopardize the process of protecting the rights on the other hand, which will have unforeseeable consequences on the entire system of public procurements - says Dobrasinovic.

Procurements that are not affected by the law

Extension of the list of procurements that are not affected by the law (such as the procurement of loans and legal services) was not well received by the public. However, Predrag Jovanovic notes that the ordering party has an obligation to apply the principles of public procurements to all procurements to which the Public Procurements Law does not apply.

Dobrasinovic is of the opinion that the extension of the list of situations to which the law does not apply opens up a big space for abuse and corruption in public procurement procedures.

Mandatory plans for public procurements

According to adopted amendments to the Public Procurements Law, the ordering party is obligated to publish the plans for public procurements, as well as amendments and supplements to these plans, on Public Procurements Portal within ten days of their adoptiong date. Plans for public procurements are to be published starting 1 January 2016, when ordering parties will practically make new annual plans.

The adopted solution will surely contribute to greater transparency of public procurement procedures and will be doubly beneficial, Dobrasinovic agrees.

- On one hand, potential bidders will gain access to information on the subject of public procurement, time frame for initiating public procurement procedures, the type of procedure, estimated value, etc., which will give them more time to prepare their bids in a timely and quality fashion. On the other hand, thanks to this information, civic society organizations and individuals supervising the implementation of public procurement procedures will be able to timely point to irregularities if any – says Dobrasinovic.

(Photo: Edhar/shutterstock.com)

All decisions at Public Procurements Portal

In line with adopted amendments, decisions on the award of contract and decisions on the termination of procedure are all to be published at Public Procurements Portal.

- This will definitely contribute to greater transparency of public procurement procedures. Thanks to the adopted solution, prospective bidders will benefit a lot, especially in terms of rights protection, and aforementioned amendment will also positively affect the entire system of public procurements - says Dobrasinovic.

Better competition

Predrag Jovanovic stresses that one of the goals is to boost competitiveness and announces measures the Public Procurements Administration will take to attract more bidders to public procurement procedures. The plan is also to organize a training for bidders and improve the search for data on Public Procurements Portal. A manual for bidders is currently in preparation and, once finished, it should point to key differences in these amendments and supplements.

Irina Milosevic

Uprava za javne nabavke Beograd

Narodna skupština Republike Srbije

Vlada Republike Srbije

Public Procurements Procedure

National Parliament

Toplica Center for Democracy and Human Rights

public procurements

Predrag Jovanovic

Dragan Dobrasinovic

tenders

amendments to the Public Procurements Law

Public Procurements Law

Public Procurement Development Strategy

Serbian government

public procurements of small value

public procurements portal