Podgorica, 22 December 2015 – The Office of the Chief Negotiator for conducting negotiations on accession of Montenegro to the European Union, in cooperation with the Public Procurement Administration, the Delegation of European Union to Montenegro, the British Embassy in Podgorica and the British Council in Montenegro, organized a public debate on Negotiation Chapter 5 – Public Procurement.

The speakers at the debate were the State Secretary for EU Integrations and the Chief Negotiator, Ambassador Aleksandar Andrija Pejović, the British Ambassador in Podgorica Ian Robert Whitting, the Head of the Cooperation Unit in the Delegation of the European Union to Montenegro Andre Lys and the Director of the Public Procurement Administration and the Head of the Working Group for the Chapter 5, PhD Mersad Mujević.

The State Secretary for EU Integrations and the Chief Negotiator, Ambassador Aleksandar Andrija Pejović stated in his speech that public procurement are primarily the significant part of the market. According to the assessments of the European Commission, the total value of public procuremnet in the EU is about 16%. Public procurement also represent a significant part of total expenses of taxpayers. Therefore the competitive practice in public procurement is a key to an efficient public spending and a non-discriminatory development of the economy. Competitive and transparent procedures help public entities to procure goods, services and works of a better quality for a lower price. The use of adequate public procurement procedures and great competition reduce the prices of public contracts. This results in more efficient spending of taxpayers’ money, encouraging economic development and ensuring greater competition. New Public Procurement Law, which entered into force in May 2015, brought significant new developments in public procurement procedures, having an aim to reduce formalistic approach in procurement procedures, reduction of costs of conducting a procedure for both contracting authorities and bidders, as well as making the procurement procedure faster and more efficient. The ambassador continued his speech referring to the European path of this Chapter and emphasized a good role of the Public Procurement Administration in the process of fulfilling the EU agenda in this field.

The similar messages could have been heard from the speech made by the British Ambassador in Podgorica Ian Robert Whitting and the one given by the Head of the Cooperation Unit in the Delegation of the European Union to Montenegro Andre Lys.

The Director of the Public Procurement Administration and the Head of the Working Group for the Chapter 5, PhD Mersad Mujević stated that the Montenegrin public procurement system would mark its 15^th anniversary in 2016, as well as that the amendments to the PPL which entered into force in May 2015 resulted in removal of a significant number of shortcomings in terms of the effects to be achieved by public procurement, especially regarding the following:

1. lack of efficient mechanisms for prevention of abuse in public procurement, above all: identifying risks in public procurement in parts concerning planning, preparation and choice of public procurement procedures as well as risks concerning the phase of contract execution,
2. lack of an appropriate and timely sanctioning of vioaltions of the Law,
3. discrepancy between the tasks determined by the Law and the capacities of the institutions in charge of public procurement policy,
4. training and methods of professionalization of the officers who manage and work within the public procurement system,
5. better coordination of institutions.

Mr. Mujević continued his speech highlighting the dimension that concerned the legal framework for public procurement, some peculiarities of public procurement in the country, the major changes which are expected in the period 2016-2020 which are clearly displayed in the strategic document for development of public procurement in Montenegro, the project activities – primarily the project of e-procurement, etc.

The conclusion of the speech emphasized that the implementation of new EU Directives should be a particular challenge in times when each country makes efforts to find a way of getting out of crisis, strengthening its economy and define procurement as a part of that process. National legislations of the members states should complete implementation of the Directives by April 2016, but at the same time to determine their position towards those elements of the EU directive given as an option, so that to make their economies enough open and attractive to business enterprises.

The candidate countries as well as potential candidates have enough time to completely harmonize their national legislation with the EU Directives and, upon that process, assume all those provisions contained in those Directives which are advantageous for the country’s economy.  Thereupon it is important to note that the education of business entities should be given a significant position along with the education of contracting authorities, in terms of encouraging joint bids and applications by groups of bidders, that the informal communication at the market should be a good practice, and not the way in which the procedure is ruined in appeal proceedings. There is no such procurement procedure which does not have its weak points, and if we are to waste our time in searching them, and not in fostering a healthy competition, the strengthening of economy becomes qestionable!

An active role at this “debate“ was assumed by, primarily, the Director of the Monitoring Program of the NGO MANS, Mr. Vuk Maraš, the member of the NGO IA Ms. Ana Đurnić, the President of the Stae Commission Mr. Tomo Miljić, the President of the Association of Municipalities of MNE Mr. Refik Bojadžić, as well as the Executive Director of the AYDMNE Ms. Marina Vujačić.