Public Consultation on the Draft Law Amending the Law on public procurement was organized in association with the Union of Municipalities by the Public Procurement Administration on 07.03.2014 in Bijelo Polje. According to the public call notice which was sent to all interested parties and individuals, the aim of this public consultation was to articulate relevant attitudes of the local self government units towards the Draft Law, including here public institutions and public enterprises which founders they are.
In the introductory part, the audience was acquainted with the speeches of the Head of the PPA of Montenegro, DSc Mersad Z Mujević, and the Secretary General of the Union of Municipalities of Montenegro, Refik Bojadžić.
DSc Mersad Mujevic noted, among oher things, of the general impression that the adoption of the PPL and its implementation started from January 01, 2012 produced favourable legal framework which is largely aligned with the EU acquis; as of the commentary of the numerous organizations, primarily EC, UNDP, EBRD, SIGMA, OSCE, WB, where the consensus clearly indicates that the current Law is largely harmonized with the practice of Law and the European Community acquis. On the other side, systematic appliance of the positive solutions in this Law brought about to the increased level in control of planning and implementation of the public procurement, anti-corruption measures and protection of the rights of interested parties. Development and improvement of the public procurement system may provide significant assistance to the further process of Montenegro Integration to the EU, primarily having in mind that public procurement represent key component to the fight against corruption. Thus, final solution of the Law has to provide the unhindered functioning of the efficient public procurement system, and transparency of the procedures ensuring economic and rational use of public funds or tax-payers money.
All of those mentioned imply ceaseless improvements of the skills and knowledge of the PPA staff, so the present-day debate speaks in favour of it. One of the requirements to the EU membership is just the public procurement system reform including broader context of the liberalization and opening of the internal market. This is particularly important for establishing a stable domestic market which is of great and vital importance to our companies in terms of difficult business and distorted economic relations.
At the same time, enormous amount of tax-payers money has been spent in public procurement system, which is additional obligation for strengthening of the system institutions, lawfulness in proceedings and accelerated harmonization with EU legislation.
Ratio legis to the new Law includes removal of deficiencies identified in current practice, clearly defining the responsibilities of those conducting public procurement procedures, efficient mechanism for prevention of malpractice within public procurement by strengthening through the managing system of the contracting authorities, bidders, categories and contracts; as well as strengthening of the monitoring by significant increase of the public in the procurement implementation process, with the focus on obligation of more coordinated work cooperation of the competent bodies, of more sistematic capacity building and participation of all the actors in the work of public procurement.
By the Amendments to this Law unnecessary formalism will be avoid and requirements that are not of crucial importance for the quality of the bid and certainty of implementation of future contract, which on one hand represents a type of business barrier, because it requires increased expenditures and accuracy in the preparation of bids from bidders and restricts market competition, and on the other hand it significantly contributes to delays in the procedure, causing the circumstances and situations that affect the final outcome of the procedure.
In addition to the above, the Law includes novelties which significantly improve the implementation of the general principles of public procurement, such as transparency, competition, equality of bidders, efficiency and effectiveness, which in particular reflect through:
The amendments to this part of the Law proposed by the Draft Law referred particularly to the following: specify the type of the public procurement procedures and its implementation relating to the determined value scales; increased powers and responsibilities of the PPA by the inspection supervision; define the framework agreement as a way of conclusion the public procurement contract; re-defining the shopping method as an open public procurement procedure of low value and its entire integration into the general concept in terms of fulfilling mandatory conditions in order to participate in a public procurement procedure, the manner of preparing and submission of the bids, and implementation of the public procurement procedure; specifying the requirements for implementing direct agreement, as a public procurement procedure by the contracting authority on which disposal there is an exceptionally low budget for public procurement; specifying the subject for procuring works and provision of services; shortening the time-limits for amendments of the public procurement plans as the prerequisite to initiation of the public procurement procedure and specifying the competence for its adoption; specifying of the manner of defining, ie determining the subject of procurement; content, publishing and submission of tender documents and the individual parts thereof; amendments and clarification of tender documents; assets of financial securing of the bid and the public procurement contract; responsibilities of the public procurement officers, and responsibilities and composition of the Commission for opening and evaluation of bids; publishing the notice on initiated public procurement procedure; mandatory conditions for participation in public procurement procedure and the manner of proving its fulfilment; the manner of determining and proving of fulfilment of the optional conditions for participation in public procurement procedure; form and validity of the proofs as the evidence on fulfilment of the conditions for participation in the public procurement procedure; the manner of preparation and submission of bids; fulfilment of certain mandatory and optional conditions by the bidders via sub providers or subcontractors; time limits for submission of bids; criteria for evaluation of bids, public bid opening procedure, conditions for validity of bids and reasons for its invalidity; the procedure of review, assessment, comparison and evaluation of bids and decision making on validity or invalidity of the submitted bids; conditions for suspension of the public procurement procedure; conclusion of the public procurement contract and compensation for the damage in case that the bidder whose bid is the most favourable one, fails to conclude public procurement contract and the annulment of the public procurement procedure; clearly prescribed manner of decision making on contracts awarding, procedures and time limits for conclusion the contracts and clearly and restrictively prescribed possibilities of changing the contract; for the first time procurement in the field of defence and security have been regulated; system of legal protection has been made more efficient; public procurement contract award upon final decision on selection of the most favourable bid; infringements for all serious violation of the law are foreseeable; Further quality of the proposed amendments would be promoted and ensured by the adoption of secondary legislation which is of the immediate importance for implementation of the Law.
In light of the clarification of certain provisions of the Draft Law and for the sake of its easier use in practice, officers in charge of public procurement tasks in local self government units actively participated in public consultation by posing numerous questions to the members of the Work Group which prepared the amendments to the Law on public procurement.
At the Public Consultation special attention was given to the issues on determining the criteria for selection of the most favourable bid, selection and composition of the tender commission, protection of the contracting authorities` interests, scope of duties and responsibilities of the officers in charge of the public procurement tasks,etc.
In continuation of this consultation, the members of the work group, Mr Tomo Miljić, and Mrs Mara Bogavac gave speech on the amendments to the PPL in terms of legal protection and misdemeanour liability.
Further work hereof features in clarification to the posed questions, noting that all suggestions to be considered in drafting the final text of the Draft Law.
All attendees have been invited to participate in the final Public Consultation which will be held on March 17, 2014 in Podgorica in order to make additional suggestions and jointly contribute to drafting of the PPL of higher quality.
PR Service of the Public Procurement Administration
