26 Sep Government passes Public Procurement Bill

Belgrade, September 23, 2019 – The Serbian government adopted the Public Procurement Bill in order to ensure compliance with the acquis communautaire in this area, and the Project provided support in the creation of the law.

As it was stated on the Government’s web-site, the effects of the implementation of this law will be seen, first of all, in the more efficient implementation of public procurement procedures, reduction of costs and administrative burdens, protection of small and medium-sized enterprises from the negative effects of centralisation of public procurement, as well as more efficient protection of rights during the procedure itself.

The Government defined that the proposed solutions are aimed at improving competitiveness and fully open advertising in the procurement process. In this domain, the Project believes that one of the big steps is to strengthen the implementation of the most economically advantageous offer, rather than the lowest one, as it is a way to obtain a higher quality service or product on the most favorable terms.

A special emphasis by the Government has been placed on combating corruption by increasing transparency and ensuring that economic operators, the public, the media and other participants are informed about bussines opportunities and tenderers to whom contracts have been awarded.

The new Public Procurement Portal, which is currently being finalised, represents a comprehensive solution that will enable electronic public procurement as well, a major step forward in reducing barriers to access to public procurement, but also as a tool for reducing bureaucracy.