Frequent tender annulments, reasons for annulment and size of tender procedures in which such decision are taken open the dilemma whether annulments are used to cover weaknesses or manipulations in implementation of public procurement procedures.
Transparency of public procurements falls below the level anticipated under the new Law on Public Procurements. Disrespect for the law-stipulated obligation to publish notifications on implemented tender procedure is observed in more than one quarter of monitored procedures at central level (27.5%).
In 2019, a total of 141 tender procedures were subject of administrative control per- formed by the Bureau of Public Procurements. Irregularities that could not be ad- dressed are identified in 16% of them (23 tender procedures), followed by instructions to annul such tender procedures. After having conducted these controls, the Bureau has not submitted any misdemeanour motions before competent authorities and has not notified the Public Prosecution Office.
In the second half of 2019, monitoring activities observed increase of the number of bids per tender procedure compared to the first half of the year. In spite of that, the average number of bids for 2019 is calculated at 3.12 and is lower compared to 2018 when it stood at 3.41.
‘Lowest price’ was used as selection criterion for the most favourable bid in 97% of tender procedures, while electronic auctions were organized in high 94% of tender procedures. Such actions on the part of institutions are neither in line with current trends in Europe nor with demands of the business community.
In 2019, direct negotiations without previously announced call for bids were organized to award 368 contracts, in total value of 40 million euros. Compared to last year’s figures, the number of contracts is reduced, but the cumulative value is in- creased by 21%.
At local level, almost all tender procedures used lowest price and electronic auctions, although they are not mandatory; annulment of local tender procedures reached a new record-breaking level of 30%, which means that almost every third monitored tender procedure was annulled; not a single public procurement from the monitoring sample included justification for procurement needs although this element is now mandated by law.
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This report was prepared by the Center for Civil Communications with the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).