Frequent annulment of tender procedures one of the major and most lasting problems in the system of public procurements in our country. The fact that every fourth tender procedure is annulled puts the country on the top rank worldwide according to another infamous phenomenon in public procurements.
The problem with massive annulment of tender procedures did not subside with any of the several measures taken in the past, and more recently with the new Law on Public Procurements,1 which reduced the list of legal grounds for tender annulment. This shows that institutions easily and daily resort to tender annulment when certain matters are not what they expected, because the analyses do not allow the conclusion that, when annulling tender procedures, they are motivated by the idea of defending the public interest in public procurements.
Tender annulments delay procurement of necessary goods, services and works; create additional costs for repeated organization of procurement procedures; increase economic and legal uncertainty of companies and undermine the trust in public procurements because of the conviction that tender procedures are annulled because they cannot be rigged.
The three-year average (2016-2018) share of tender annulments in total procurement notices stands at 25% (including both fully and partially annulled tender procedures), while the share of tender annulments after the new law entered in effect, in April 2019, by October the same year, is calculated at a record-breaking 31%. In the first nine months of 2019, the share of tender annulments is 27%.
You can read more about the policy brief in Macedonian and English language
For more information, please contact the Center for Civil Communications at (02) 3213-513 or at center@ccc.org.mk.
This publication is developed with financial support from the European Union, under the project “Balkan Tender Watch”.