Upon request of the World Bank, a meeting between representatives of the World Bank – Mr. Jose Manuel Martinez, a public procurement specialist and Mrs Sanela Ljuca, an operational analyst with the Public Procurement Administration of Montenegro, represented by the Director Mr. Mersad Mujević with his colleagues Mrs. Nikolić, Mrs. Tomović and Ms. Poleksić, was held in Podgorica, on 27 January 2012 at 11:00h.
Appointment of Mr. Martinez as a new public procurement specialist for the projects financed by the World Bank loans was the occasion for holding this meeting which had the aim to introduce the guests to the solutions brought by the new Public Procurement Law as well as to the public procurement procedures conducted in Montenegro as of 01/01/2012.
The Director of the PPA recalled continuous and successful cooperation with the World Bank in terms of quality of information exchange.
With reference to the previous Public Procurement Law of 2006, the Director of the PPA explained the need for adoption of a new legislation which has been harmonized with the EU legislation to the greatest possible extent.
Motives for further harmonization resulted from key decision of the Stabilization and Association Agreement with the EU and its Member states, as well as from the regular annual reports of the European Commission on progress of Montenegro in this area for 2008, 2009 and 2010.
Public procurement is one of the areas in which the Government of Montenegro is making a significant progress, going towards creation of a comprehensive new legislative and institutional framework. Reform of the public procurement sector is included in a wider context of further liberalization and opening of the internal market, reform of the state administration and improvement of the public finances governance.
Actually, implementation and enforcement of the modern public procurement system will result in an efficient, transparent and reliable system of public spending, liberalization of the market which is a cornerstone of the country’s association process.
Public procurement represent a significant part of Montenegrin economy, since the average share of public procurement in the national GDP was about 16% in the course of previous 4 years.
Mr. Mujević emphasized as extremely important the fact that there is no preferential treatment for local economic operators over foreign economic operators participating in procurement procedures in Montenegro, which is in accordance with the Article 35 of the WTO Agreement.
New Public Procurement Law presents a range of new solutions referring to:
- Cost-effectiveness and efficiency of use of public funds;
- Transparency of the procedures;
- Prevention of abuse in the use of public funds.
Apart from the three above-mentioned substantial improvements, this Law also provided the instruments for accomplishing goals and other issues: environmental protection, consideration of social and ethical views in the community and environment, fostering innovations and development of new products and technologies as well as encouragement of development of small and medium enterprises.
- A cost-effective use of public funds was presented by the Law from the aspects of a quality and comprehensive planning of public procurement, where there is an obligation stipulated for all contracting authorities to publish their Public procurement plans no later than 31 January of the current fiscal year and to submit them to the competent state authority in purpose of their publication at the Public Procurement Portal. The Plan must have a rationale for each individual subject, and it must be in compliance with the codes contained in the Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV).
- Transparency has been improved by the new software solution for electronic publication of public procurement notices, with the particularly prominent stages which do not allow for non-transparency within the procedure. It refers to visible publication of the Plan, which is linked to the invitation to public tender, the decision on selection of the most favourable bid or decision on annulment of procedure and, at last, the public procurement contract. A new portal also provides potential bidders with other information (bylaws, EU Directives, opinions on practical implementation of the Law, trainings, reports).
3. Prevention of abuse in use of public funds. This segment has been especially improved by the new Public Procurement Law and it implies primarily a professional training in this area, emphasizes rules of anti-corruption policy and policy of conflict of interest, as well as inspection control and protection of bidders’ rights through a separate autonomous body.
It is important to mention that in the reporting period so far, the average percentage of open public procurement procedure is over 80%, also, that intensity of competition in procedures is something above 5.5 bidders per procedure and that something above 5 000 contracts are concluded in Montenegro annually.
The PPA stated that all statistical data since 2007 are available at the Portal www.ujn.gov.me.
Representatives of World Bank shared their experiences from their international practice and, on basis of what they had heard from the PPA representatives, concluded that the Public Procurement Law is a harmonized one and of a high quality, as well as that the electronic system of publication of notices, based on a new software solution, is a very progressive one.
The guests expressed their interest for the institute of legal protection within the public procurement system and obtained a detailed answer, and it was stated that the legal protection of the bidders was provided in all stages of the procedure and that the Law envisaged existance of an autonomus body in charge of protection of bidders’ rights, and that body was the Commission for control of public procurement procedures – www.kontrola-nabavki.me.
It was planned to continue the dialogue on specified projects through various forms of technical assistance.
The PPA has informed the World Bank representatives about the areas where financial, technical and logistical support is needed.
Primarily, the support would refer to the process of professional training and education both for contracting authorities and the bidders, as well as to the concrete activities aimed at providing support to publication of technical literature, bulletins, manuals in the field of public procurement.
With an aim of creation of a modern and efficient electronic public procurement system, it was envisaged to establish an electronic archive and electronic database, and the PPA would also need a certain support in that purpose, primarily financial one.
The World Bank representatives were very attentive to the proposed models of support. They expressed particular interest for support to the electronic public procurement system and their readiness to get involved into its finalization.
The World Bank representatives also expressed their readiness to consider possibilities of providing assistance through the projects related to professional training, and, after submission of the conceptual solution by the PPA, they commited to inform the PPA on the above subject.
The guests took this occasion to invite the Public Procurement Administration of Montenegro to the Conference that is to be held in Tirana, Albania in May 2012, and they pointed out that the Conference would be an ideal opportunity for all participating countries to present their accomplishments and reach an agreement with potential donors on the future assistance projects.
Director of the PPA also introduced the World Bank representatives with the solutions contained in the Strategic document which gives the perspective of the position of public procurement in Montenegro in the period 2011-2015.
Report drawn up by:
Sanja Poleksić and Svetlana Tomović
Director,
Mersad Mujević
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