Results from the monitoring of public procurements in Macedonia
SKOPJE, 20 May 2014 – Today, the Centre for Civil Communications published the Monitoring results for public procurement procedures in Macedonia for the period October – December 2013, and the Index of Rationality no. 10.
Key findings related to monitoring of public procurements include:
- In 2013, competition in public procurements remained low. Average number of bids submitted in 2013 tender procedures monitored (total of 160) is 2.6 and more than one third of tender procedures received only one bid.
- Six years have passed from the entry into effect of the Law on Public Procurements (LPP), but some institutions continue to act contrary to the legal provisions contained therein and companies are still unaware of their rights related to legal remedies.
- In the course of 2013, a total of 1,368 procurement contracts were signed by means of negotiation procedures without previously announced calls for bids and they account for around 81 million EUR.
- In 2013, 22.7% of all tender procedures were annulled. Moreover, most frequently annulled are tender procedures in the value up to 20,000 EUR.
- Multiannual trend of decreasing the number of appeals lodged by the companies in front of the State Commission on Public Procurement Appeals continues. SCPPA approved every third motion for appeal and most of its decisions taken in the appeal procedure concern complete annulment of tender procedures.
Index of Rationality no. 10 is developed by means of comparing prices at which different contracting authorities purchased school desks, automobile tires, crushed stone for road maintenance, expert supervision of construction works and nitrous oxide for medical use. Greatest differences in price attained was noted in relation to procurement of expert supervision of construction works, while the smallest differences in price attained was noted in relation to procurement of nitrous oxide for medical use. Specific differences observed under this Index of Rationality include the following:
- school desks were purchased at prices ranging from 1,729 to 6,103 MKD, where the highest price is by 253% higher than the lowest price;
- automobile tires were purchased by the institutions at prices ranging from 2,309 to 5,546 MKD per winter tyre with dimensions 175/70 r13, where the highest price is by 140% higher than the lowest, while winter tires with dimensions 205/55 r16 were purchased at prices ranging from 4,228 to 9,558 MKD, which means that the highest price is by 126% higher than the lowest price;
- prices of crushed stone for road maintenance range from 649 to 1,121 MKD per 1 tonne, which means that the highest price is by 73% higher than the lowest price;
- expert supervision of construction works was contracted under service fee set as 0.39% to 2.97% of the construction building’s value, where the highest service fee is more than 6 times higher than the lowest service fee;
- nitrous oxide N2O for medical use was purchased by health care facilities at prices ranging from 578 to 636 MKD per kilogram, where the highest price is by 10% higher than the lowest price.