More than 400 million euros of public procurement contracts were concluded in procedures where there was only one bid

Today, May 29, 2023, the Center for Civil Communications (CCC) published the Report of the regular monitoring of public procurements carried out from January to December 2022, which also includes the results of the survey of companies on their experience in participating in public procurement procedures and analysis of the procedures before the State Commission on Public Procurements Appeals. Key findings from the research include: - Every third public procurement contract in 2022 was awarded in a procedure marked by participation of only one company. It is a matter of 9,305 contracts, in total value of 26 billion MKD (427 million EUR).
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– 46% of companies believe that corruption is present in public procurement, and 18% reported they have personally faced corruption in tenders.
– 54% of companies acknowledge that there is bid rigging.
– 93% of companies believe that e-auctions result in attainment of unrealistic prices and undermine the quality.
– For 63% of companies, the ‘lowest price’ used as selection criterion is the most frequent problem they face in public procurement.
– Companies submitted 751 appeals before the State Commission for Public Procurement Complaints in 2022, which is a decrease of 34% compared to the previous year.
– Through the non-transparent procedure of negotiation without prior tender notice, contracts worth 31 million EUR were awarded, which is a decrease of 30% compared to the previous year.
– 31% of public procurement procedures were annulled.
– 90% of the monitored tenders were conducted later than the deadline foreseen in the public procurement plans.
– The average number of bids per tender in 2022 accounts for 3, which indicates a decrease in competition compared to 2021.

For more information, please contact the Center for Civil Communications at (02) 3213-513 or at center@ccc.org.mk.

The report was prepared as part of the project “Monitoring of public procurements”, implemented by the Center for Civil Communications and financially supported by the Foundation Open Society – Macedonia.