Podgorica, 29 February 2012 – A presentation of the document ”Analysis of risks of corruption in Montenegro in the fields of public procurement, urban development planning, spatial planning, land register, real estate registration and turnover” was held in Podgorica, organized by the OSCE Mission to Montenegro, within the Project ”Importance of prevention and fight against corruption and organized crime”. The Project has been realized with the support from the OSCE Mission to Montenegro, and among its essential goals are fight against corruption, implementation of anti-corruption measures, as well as the adjustment to the EU standards.
The Conference was attended by Sarunas Adomavicius, Ambassador of the OSCE in MNE, Peter Hadler, expert from Austria, Vukašin Duričković, B.Sc. architect, Biljana Šćekić, Assistant Minister of Finance, Mersad Mujević, Director of Public Procurement Administration, ambassadors of several EU countries as well as the officers from other administrative bodies of the Government of Montenegro to whom the indicated topic concerned.
A sound, well functioning public procurement system is a backbone in the fight against corruption. Project ”Further development and strengthening of public procurement system in Montenegro” within IPA 2007 Project was of an extreme importance for Montenegrin public procurement, and therewith the requirements of the acquis were implemented in the largest possible extent. Here we would like to emphasize its following aspects: improvement of the effective spending in public procurement; enhancement of transparency and competitiveness; elimination of discriminatory practices; reduction of room for abuse; providing of an efficient and independent complaint review procedure; providing an appropriate analytical monitoring of public procurement etc. All these measures, once incorporated, represent and offer efficient methods in the fight against corruption. Namely, different risks of corruption are inherent to different phases of the public procurement process. Therefore, the above mentioned project accentuated those new strengthened competences of the Public Procurement Administration, the State Commission, not only when it comes to preventive actions, but also to the repressive ones.
“In the context of future association of Montenegro into the EU, the European Commission will primarily consider the concrete results and experience, especially in the fight against corruption in public procurement. For the purposes of an efficient implementation of the Law, the joint efforts of all interested parties will be necessary. In that view, the OSCE wishes to offer support to the Public Procurement Administration, as it proved to be an active and reliable partner in stimulation and implementation of refoms.” – as it was stated by Sarunas Adomavicius, Ambassador of the OSCE Mission to Montenegro.
Mersad Mujević, Director of Public Procurement Administration declared: “We are completely ready to work on improving the public procurement reforms in accordance with the EC recommendations which were explicitly stated in the Progress Report for 2011, more specifically, at the following: consistent implementation of the Strategy for development of public procurement for the period 2011-2015, through the Action plan for its implementation which implies as fast as possible conducting of ”certification” of the public procurement officers, that is, passing the professional examination through a training program and establishment of an efficient mechanism for combatting corruption and irregularities in public procurement, especially through the auditing activities (inspection,…).
As for corruption, it has so far been endemic in the market, but, on the other side, a faithful companion in public procurement circles. There is no point to pass over this issue in an superficial manner. It is a reality, and without resolving primarily the issue of bribery of the persons involved in the public procurement process, it will not be eliminated. The need to allow the access to the process of legal protection is important if we want to eliminate corruption, beacuse if we cannot achieve the high level of trust in public procurement within the private sector, the corruption will never be eliminated. This is especially the task of the PPA, State Commission, Administrative Court. Director Mujević also commented on the Analysis made by the experts engaged by the OSCE, and noted the following:
– It is the legitimate question of making a risk assessment in all areas by the OSCE and any partner in Montenegro, including public procurement,
– This analysis is a kind of retroactive process,
– Before it got the green light, this analysis should have been considered before the new Law on public procurement was adopted, and I believe that it would have been effective,
– By analysis of this ”analysis”, some unsystematic remarks were given without methodological indication of method of its production, and specific features of the arguments,
– The term coruption risk assessment, implies the process of identification of organizational factors (internal and external), that spur or may spur corruptive behaviour within certain public policies, as well as formulating recommandations aimed at elimination or reduction of side effects. However, we believe, stating the facts, that the expert team did not consider the new Law, new solutions provided by the Law, solutions provided by the Strategy for development of public procurement in Montenegro, etc…, so they allowed themselves to make comments which have to be subject of serious analyses in terms of sustainability of the set theories,
– I would like o invite the OSCE and the experts to make our future cooperation more frequent and not to make superficial qualifications on individual segments (Law’s provisins as well) of functioning of public procurement system in our country, since this is not the only assessment that has been made on our public pocurement system, but it was also made by other relevant international organizations (EC, EBRD, WB, UNDP, SIGMA…) where their consensus clearly indicated that the public procurement system has been to the greatest extent harmonized with the EU Directives and practice of the European Court of Justice.
Peter Hadler also gave his comments to this analysis and they can be summarized into the expressed need for stronger inter-institutional cooperation of the bodies in charge of anti-corruption policy, the need for introdustion of centralized public procurement from the aspect of those countries with their economic reality similar to that of Montenegro, the need for further development of e-procurement, etc. Mr. Hadler also pointed out that the new Law on public procurement of Montenegro is very compatible to the laws applied in the EU countries.
The media representatives and the interested expert audience had the opportunity to attend all presentations after the official part had been finished. The Public Procurement Administration expresses its regret that the media representatives did not stay to hear the presentations of representatives of the system institutions included in this analysis.
PR Office of PPA
