Organized by the Public Procurement Administration, a two-day seminar was held with a topic: Obligations of Montenegro assumed by its membership into the World Trade Organization (WTO), regarding the Government Procurement Agreement – GPA.
In purpose of observing the assumed obligations of Montenegro as a full member of the WTO, the Public Procurement Administration organized a workshop with its main theme regarding accession of Montenegro to the plurilateral Government Procurement Agreement (GPA).
On behalf of the Public Procurement Administration, the Director, PhD Mersad Mujević, had a presentation on he national legislation and he also spoke about the possibilities provided by our Public Procurement Law.
Mr. Mujević focused on the importance of the Montenegrin accession process to this Agreement from the aspect that the WTO is the broadest forum for conducting negotiations on liberalization of international trade in all its segments.
The special emphasis was put onto the presentation of national legislation framework, above all the basic public procurement principles, which are fully compatible with the GPA (Government Procurement Agreement) principles, in particular transparency, competition and non-discrimination, as well as equality of bidders and procedures and rules regarding the public procurement in our country.
On this occasion it was stressed that the Public Procurement Law does not implicitly provide for the preferential treatment of domestic bidders in relation to the international bidders.
Sa seminara
Representatives of the WTO, Mr. R. Anderson, Team Leader for the Government procurement and competition policy and Mr. J. Chen from the WTO Secretariat, with their partners from SIGMA and EBRD Mr. D. Ivarsson and Mr. J.Schnitzer have spoken, during theose two days, about the advantages that the mentioned Agreement provides for the accessing countries, the commitments to be assumed, the scope of coverage and so on. They also made the reference to the assistance they provide to the countries aspiring for the EU membership.
Through their presentations, the experts made references to the basic features of the GPA- Government Procurement Agreement, as well as to the current state of affairs in Montenegro from the aspect of compliance of the Public Procurement Law with the GPA.
It was emphasized that the GPA should be viewed as the minimum of standards to be met.
The meeting was opened by the Deputy Minister of Finance Ms. Ana Ivanović, who stressed the importance of a well-regulated public procurement system in terms of achieving the best value for money.
The workshop was attended by the representatives of executive and legislative authorities as well as representatives of the civil sector and administrative bodies.
The conclusions of the workshop were the following:
– Montenegro is committed to intensifying the negotiations on its accession to the GPA – Government Procurement Agreement, until the end of the current year,
– Continuation of the initiated expert and technical support in accordance with the needs,
– It was agreed that the WTO representatives and their partners, in this case the Public Procurement Administration, define the provisional time frames for continuation of the process, so as to make sure that the initial coverage proposal is submitted by the end of September.
– It was agreed that the Working group should be established as soon as possible, consisting of representatives of the Public Procurement Administration, Ministry of Finance, Ministry for Foreign Affairs and European Integrations, the Parliament of Montenegro and Ministry of Economy.
– The contact person should be appointed, who will be responsible for the efficient communication within the efforts on implementation of the said conclusions.
– All the above mentioned should be realized in close cooperation with the Delegation of European Union to Montenegro.
This two-day workshop officially marked the beginning of negotiations on accession of Montenegro to the GPA – Government Procurement Agreement.
PR Team of the Public Procurement Administration
ANNEXES:
| Agenda |  |
| Basic Documentation | |
| Robert Anderson – The revised WTO Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA): global context, content of the Agreement and considerations for Montenegro | |
| Jianning Chen – Overview of Parties’ coverage commitments under the revised GPA and structure of an Appendix I offer | |
| Daniel Ivarsson – SIGMA and its work in public procurement | |
