Findings from the monitoring of public procurements in Macedonia

SKOPJE, 25 July, 2014 – Today, the Centre for Civil Communications published the monitoring results for public procurement procedures in Macedonia for the period January-March 2014. Key findings include:

• In the first quarter of this year, the total value of contracts signed by means of negotiation procedure without previously announced call for bids is marked by major increase, notably in the wake of entry in effect of legal provisions that should reduce the occurrence of this type of procurement contracts. Within a period of only three months, the negotiation procedure without previously announced call for bids was used to sign 228 procurement contracts in total value of 19.3 million EUR.
• Given the subject of most public procurements implemented in the first quarter of this year, such as computer equipment, office supplies, insurance services, air-tickets, hygiene services, etc., the competition in public procurements was on higher level compared to the average competition observed in 2013. Some institutions continued to condition companies’ participation in tender procedures with evidence on their profitability.
• Elements used to evaluate the quality of bids remain the weakest link in the system of public procurements.
• By March 2014, the number of companies that have been prohibited to participate in tender procedures reached 45. One company from the black list has been prohibited to participate in tender procedures for an accumulative period longer than the law-stipulated maximum of five years.

This Report is available here.