Podgorica; 30.01.2017.godine; A meeting between representatives of the World Bank and the Public Procurement Administration was held today in premises of the Public Procurement Administration. The World Bank was represented by, Ms. Manjola Malo, Procurement Specialist, Mr. Denis Mesihović, Operations Officer from the WB office in Podgorica, Ms. Sanda Jugo and Mr. Joao de Almeida and Mr. Vladimir Boricic, Consultants, while the Public Procurement Administration team was led by Director PhD Mersad Mujević. The meeting’s objective was to discuss the implementation of the Project “Improving the system of public procurement in Montenegro“ which comprises two components; the first is Development of guidelines for monitoring activity in public procurement in Montenegro, improving administrative and professional capacities in Montenegrin institutions with focus on measuring performance and procurement monitoring, and the second is Development of communication guidelines for economic operators, with focus on development of guidelines for SMEs and their more active role in public procurement system. The value of the Project is 80,000 US$.
Regarding the mentioned project and its importance, the Director of the Public Procurement Administration, PhD Mersad Mujević, pointed out that the objective of the first component is to develop a manual for financial and performance auditing of public procurement in order to guide both procurement staff and auditing staff, including compliance, performance and integrity indicators.
The quality of the data gathered will be routinely verified by audits, analysed, published and will be subject to feedback into the system. The activity will also insist on acquiring knowledge of World Bank and SECO rules and procedures as regards to their practical anticorruption measures and their functions. The second, very important component (communication guidelines for SMEs) re concerns the sensitive approach that should be demonstrated by the public administration towards the role of SMEs in the economy of our country. We should note that the sector of small and medium enterprises is one of the main drivers of economic development, considering that there are 25,595 companies within that sector which achieved 76% of total turnover, and that they also have a share of 67% of total value added and that they recruit nearly two thirds of the total number of employees.
The problems are reflected in the offer of financial products insufficiently customized to the needs of SMEs, the fact that alternative sources of funding have not been finalized or put into proper use, the enterprises are not sufficiently prepared for the access to funds or they do not have the necessary credit capacity, and frequently they do not possess the adequate credit security assets. Financial literacy is not at the required level and the enterprises do not have enough knowledge to present projects appropriately to financiers, and the ability to manage finances in the regular execution of financial and credit commitments is often limited. In addition, it is evident that the enterprises apply inappropriately the prescribed standards required for participation in foreign markets; also, they underuse services of consulting market and networking opportunities, which leads to low competitiveness of SMEs, regional disparities in development, as well as inadequate use of export possibilities.
Public procurement becomes more and more sophisticated, and therefore SMEs must be taken into account in that process to ensure that the rules established in legislative framework are not disputed. Although the procurement performance in public sector in Montenegro is improving, steps should be taken towards better cooperation and coordination among various contracting authorities, especially towards facilitating participation of the SMEs.
The main elements of this component will address a wide array of issues, such as the harmonisation of legislation on public procurement with the new directives in this field; Initiating and promoting the importance of the use of green, social and innovative public procurement; Development of specific advice, criteria and indicators to be used in public competitions to ease the access to SMEs; Encouraging the integration of those criteria in the planning stages of public procurement and make these plans available to the private sector as early as possible; Education of SMEs with a view to improving their capacity in public procurement, the development of guidelines and organization of seminars for SMEs; In order to create the conditions for innovation in public procurement, greater employment and development of SMEs, a greater use of the criterion “economically most advantageous bid“ will be encouraged; Education of contracting authorities in terms of how to create a subject of public procurement to enable a better access for SMEs; the effects of the abolition or substantial reduction of the amount of compensation for the proceedings related to the protection of the rights shall be analysed in order to create more favourable conditions for SMEs; in order to enable the easier access for SMEs to job opportunities in the field of public procurement, contracting authorities will be encouraged to implement public procurement by lots; Spreading the idea of socially responsible public procurement through an open access to information about contract notices, bids.
Realization of the projects will start in the following week and will continue in accordance with the planned roadmap until mid-May, when the general public will be formally made aware of the results.
Public Procurement Administration
