Market research which all contracting authorities must conduct in order to demonstrate existence of sufficient number of manufacturers in the country and abroad for goods they wish to purchase is almost impossible to be implemented. Unable to conduct market research, entities procuring goods must apply for previous approval from the Council of Public Procurements. This Council most often issues approval in second attempt. That happens in 80% of tender procedures from the monitoring sample in which approval has been sought. In 10% of cases, such approvals were granted only after the third attempt, and remaining 10% received approval in their first attempt.
Each monitoring sample includes numerous examples of tender procedures in which prices attained by means of e-auction are extremely low and bring under question not only quality of goods or services delivered, but also their quantity. The fact that data on procurement contract performance are not made publicly available is truly detrimental, and institutions do not disclose these documents even in cases when such information is requested in compliance with the Law on Free Access to Public Information. Such data would allow insight in services/goods being procured and quantities delivered under utterly incomprehensible prices attained in some tender procedures.
While competition in tender procedures implemented at local level remains low with an average of 2.8 bidding companies per tender procedure, the share of tender procedures marked by one or no bids submitted continues to decrease. The average number of bidding companies throughout monitoring years is calculated at 2.6.
After minor drop observed in the previous six-month period, the share of annulled tender procedures has again reached an above-average level. Reasons thereof are various, but the most dominant reason for tender annulment implies the fact that the public procurement committee has assessed that all bids received are unacceptable.
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The present report is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) within the USAID Civil Society Project.