20 Jun The project Support for further improvement of public procurement system in Serbia successfully finalised

Belgrade, 17 June 2021

Thanks to the new Public Procurement Portal, Serbia obtained a modern system for management of public procurement which is transparent, easily available and fully aligned with EU regulations.

This is joint opinion of participants of the final conference of the project „Support for further improvement of public procurement system in Serbia“ held today which is financed by the European union with 3.2 million EUR and implemented in cooperation with Public Procurement Office.

Ivana Đenić, deputy director of the Public Procurement Office expressed exceptional contentment with accomplished results of the project. She mentioned that the project provided professional and technical support to the Public Procurement Office in creating new legal framework for public procurement aligned with the package of the new EU Directives in the field of public procurement from 2014.

„Results can be seen in the adoption of the new Public Procurement Law which is applied as of 1 July 2020 and the set of secondary regulations needed for its implementation. Development of the new Public Procurement Portal is one of the most important project results and major step forward in digitalisation of public procurement in the Republic of Serbia. Indicators of success of the new Portal are also the assessment of more than 80% of users of the Portal who said that the new Portal has made the application of the new Public Procurement Law and participation in the procedures easier, while more than 77% of them evaluated that the possibility to make mistakes in the public procurement procedures with the implementation of the new Portal, is reduced to minimum. “

Martin Klaucke, head of OPSII of the Delegation of the EU in Serbia pointed out to significance of public procurement in the broader context of public finance management system. „Efficiency of public procurement directly affects the quality of public services provided by the state to the citizens and economy. New Public Procurement Portal as a tool for electronic procurement may significantly affect the efficiency of public procurement as well as its transparency, which directly affects the reduction of potential corruption. Project is successfully concluded after adoption of the necessary legislation, but progress is requisite in other areas of public procurement as well. Already tomorrow we have further activities continuing our work to continuously support the efforts of Serbia in this field. “

Marko Jovanović, assistant minister of finance and head of Sector for contracting and financing EU funded programmes has said: „From the aspect of the Sector for contracting and financing and from my experience I can say that this type of projects is crucial from the aspect of transparency and competition, with project such as this it is made easier for economic operators to compete for public contracts, which brings us to healthy competition which leads to reducing of prices and costs, better quality of goods, services and works and so on. I am proud we have gone one step further with this project and modernised at times complex bureaucratic job, and made it easier to tenderers and staff of the Public Procurement Office“.

Teja Kolar, team leader emphasised the most important results of the project, from the support in drafting the new legal framework, new Public Procurement Portal used by more than 25000 users, to the series of trainings held and producing great number of practical tools for application of the new Law. „Team of experts of the Project organised and held together with the Public Procurement office more than 50 workshops, seminars webinars, conferences and round tables participated by more than 3000 people. The Project produced more than 140 guidelines, instructions, analysis, models, reports and video tutorials on different aspects of public procurement with emphasis on practical implementation of the Law and the Portal. Video tutorials and other online available content has been viewed by more than 85 000 times so far. More than 76% of users of the Portal have assessed user support provided by the Public Procurement Office adequate and she has congratulated the Office on the great work“.

Of great importance is also ensured sustainability of the established system and possibility of its long-term use by the great number of users, contracting authorities and tenderers, on one side, and entire interested public, on the other. New system will contribute to achieving the best value for tax payer’s money, but also reducing risk of irregularities in public procurement. Serbia has gained a tool for further fight against corruption and irregularities in public procurement.