Monitoring on public procurement report 37 (July-December 2021)

Today, September 21, 2022, the Center for Civil Communications (CCC) published the Report from the regular monitoring of public procurement carried out in the period from July to December 2021, which also includes findings from the survey of companies about their experience in participating in the procedures for public procurement, analysis of the procedures before the State Commission for Public Procurement Complaints for 2021 and research of the contracting authorities on their personnel capacities for public procurement.

KEY FINDINGS

 

»The cumulative value of contracts awarded under non-transparent negotiating procedures without previously announced call for bids has doubled in amount. Total value of such contracts awarded in 2021 accounts for 46 million EUR, which is by 16 million EUR more than the value calculated in 2020. High 80% of this amount belong to contracts awarded without call for bids by JSC Power Plants, the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Education and Science.

»Institutions do not comply with the law-stipulated obligation for publishing notifications on contract performance. By May 2022, notifications on contract performance have been submitted only for one-third of all contracts signed. Based on information contained in such notifications, it could be inferred that under every fourth contract performed the relevant institution has not settled its debt towards the company.

»Institutions are still reluctant to renounce electronic auctions in spite of all warnings that they encourage arrangements among companies and corruption. In 2021, electronic auctions were organized in high 89% of tender procedures.

»In almost every second tender procedure, public procurement commissions have rejected company bids as unacceptable, which raises concerns whether such actions are intentional, i.e. aimed at reducing competition and discouraging bidders from participation in tender procedures.

»In the third year from their introduction, administrative controls conducted by the Bureau of Public Procurements still fall short of becoming a mechanism for detection of illegal actions and abuses. As was the case before, in 2021 the Bureau has not initiated any misdemeanour procedures before competent authorities and has not reported certain findings to the Public Prosecution Office of RNM.

»The research conducted among institutions and aimed at assessing their capacity for implementation of public procurements shows major differences and absence of standards and rules on the number of officers responsible for public procurements, which could lead to omissions or insufficient use of this potential.

»In 2021, companies have lodged a total of 1,008 appeals, which represents an increase by 2.5% compared to last year. As regards decisions taken upon appeals, most of them (42.6%) have been approved. However, the share of approved appeals is by 10.7 percentile points lower compared to last year.

Findings from the survey among companies:

»50% of companies indicated “lowest price” as the most common problem they encounter in public procurements;

»82% of companies believe that the procurement’s estimated value should be published in advance;.

»91% of companies believe that electronic auctions result in attainment of unrealistic prices and undermine the quality of public procurements;

»62% of companies acknowledge existence of previous arrangements among them when participating in tender procedures;

»51% of companies believe corruption is present in public procurements. 65% of them also believe that connections are the most common form of corruption;

»Companies have assessed the process of public procurements in the country with an average score of 2.8 (on the scale from 1 to 5), which is the same as last year.