Competition in tenders remains low

SKOPJE, 10 December 2015 – Today, the Centre for Civil Communications published the monitoring results for public procurement procedures in Macedonia for the period January-June 2015. Key findings related to monitoring of public procurements include:

• Low competition, which brings under question the effectiveness of public spending, continues to be the key hallmark of tender procedures in the first half of 2015. Although established for the purpose of increasing competition, the Council of Public Procurements has failed to yield any results.

• In the first six months of this year, the Council of Public Procurements was presented with 10,362 applications for approval, costing the institutions as much as 74.3 million MKD, i.e. 1.2 million EUR.
• Introduced controls have disciplined the institutions and forced them to reduce their use of non-transparent negotiation procedures without prior announcement of call for bids. In the first half of 2015, public funds spent by means of this type of contracts amounted to around 11.5 million EUR and are by 61.4% lower compared to the same period last year.
• In the first half of 2015, 18.5% of all tender procedures announced were annulled. This marked a modest decrease in the number of tender annulments compared to the previous monitoring periods.
• In the first half of this year, companies submitted the lowest number of appeals recorded in the last several years. The State Commission on Public Procurement Appeals was presented with 252 appeals in total, which is by 23.6% lower compared to the same period last year. More than half of appeals lodged have been submitted by companies contesting the selection decision on the most favourable bid in the tender procedure.

This Report is available here. For more information, please contact the Centre for Civil Communications on tel. (02) 3213-513 or by e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

USAID Civil Society Project is implemented by the Foundation Open Society – Macedonia (FOSM) in partnership with the Centre for Civil Communications, the Youth Educational Forum, Reactor – Research in Action, and Forum – Centre for Strategic Research and Documentation.

NOTE TO THE EDITORS:

The American people, through USAID, have invested over $500 million in Macedonia since 1993. USAID works with the people of Macedonia to create jobs, strengthen democratic institutions and practices, enhance integrated education, and prepare students for the workforce. These initiatives improve the quality of life and support Macedonia’s transition to a stable and prosperous democracy. USAID provides economic and humanitarian assistance in more than 100 countries. For more information please visit USAID Macedonia Website and USAID Macedonia Facebook page.