Public Procurement on the Local Level: Different Procurements – Same Problems

SKOPJE, 14 February 2013 – Today the Center for Civil Communications published findings from their monitoring of public procurement procedures that were implemented by local government institutions between April and September 2012. A problem present in almost one third of the monitored local tenders is the use of eligibility criteria that were inappropriate to the subject of the procurement, the estimated value of the tender, or the market conditions. The legal obligation to organize an e-auction for all public procurements, regardless of their value, has become more difficult to adhere to in local tenders. Hence, e-auctions took place in only 46% of the monitored procedures. Local institutions frequently do not exhibit transparency and accountability in public procurements, not only when these principles should be a reflection of good governance, but also when such conduct is stipulated by law. Tender annulment is also an issue for local level public procurements, with 15% annulled during the monitored period.  However, this is considerably lower than the percentage of central level tenders that were annulled (25%) during that period. Companies that participate in tenders organized by local government institutions point to the following problems as the most frequent: the large amount of required documentation for bids, technical specifications, eligibility criteria and the evaluation process, short deadlines, and the obligatory e-auction. The report is available on-line at www.ccc.org.mk.  For further information please contact the Centre for Civil Communications at (02) 3213-513 or at center@ccc.org.mk. You can find the report here