<p>Firms continue to be dissatisfied with public procurement</p>
<p>SKOPJE, June 13, 2018 - The Center for Civil Communications today published a<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/bpr9w1jgvi6ogyp/30_Monitoring%20na%20javni%20nabavki%20na%20nacionalno%20nivo_ENG.pdf?dl=0" target="_blank"> report on the monitoring of public procurements conducted by the central level institutions for the period from July to December 2017.</a></p>
<p><strong>Key findings from the survey findings based on interviews with 210 companies related to their experience from participation in public procurements, conducted in the period February-March </strong><strong>2018 </strong></p>
<ul>
<li>‘Lowest price’ defined as single criterion to award public procurement contracts, delayed payment for contract performance and requirements related to voluminous documents for tender participation are the main problems in public procurements indicated by the companies. </li>
<li>In average, surveyed companies wait 6 months and 21 days for payment of contracts performed. This average was 8 months under the survey conducted two years ago and 6 months under the survey conducted last year. </li>
<li>95% of surveyed companies believe that e-auctions result in attainment of unrealistically low prices and undermine quality of procurements on the account of their price. </li>
<li>As many as 88% of surveyed companies believe corruption is present in public procurements, but indicated different assessments about its presence. The highest share, i.e. 47% of them believe corruption is present in public procurements, but rarely; 5% indicated corruption is always present; and 36% of companies reported that corruption is often present. Only 12% of companies indicated there is no corruption in public procurements. </li>
<li>Dominant share of companies indicated that they often or rarely witnessed non-compliance with the Law of Public Procurements in tender procedures in which they participated. </li>
<li>As many as 96% of surveyed companies never or rarely lodged appeals to contest tender procedures in which they participated, mainly due to high charges related to appeal procedures and their distrust in SCPPA. </li>
<li>On the scale from 1 (negative) to 5 (excellent), companies gave an average score of 2.85 for the overall process of public procurements in the Republic of Macedonia. Compared to results obtained under the previous survey, deterioration by 0.28 points was observed in terms of companies’ satisfaction with tender procedures in which they participated, whereby the average score is again lower than 3.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Key findings from monitoring of public procurements:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Public procurements reached a record low level in 2017. Value of public procurement contracts signed this year amounted to 624 million EUR compared to 962 million EUR contracted under public procurements implemented in 2016.</li>
<li>Council of Public Procurements was terminated in late November 2017. There are no available data on effects from its operation in the last five months (July-November 2017). The special commission established at the Ministry of Finance did not disclose requested information. </li>
<li>On annual level, annulled tender procedures accounted for 24% of all public procurements organized in 2017, which is the highest share recorded in the period 2013-2017.</li>
<li>In 2017, satisfactory level of competition in tender procedures (3 and more bidders) was recorded with 48% of monitored public procurements. The share of tender procedures presented with only one bid is the lowest share recorded in the last 4 years and stands at 21%. </li>
<li>In 2017, total of 496 public procurement contracts were signed without previously announced call for bids and their value amounted to 29 million EUR. As many as 12 million EUR or 42% of the total value were contracted by two institutions: Ministry of Education and Science and JSC Power Plants of Macedonia (ELEM). </li>
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<p><strong>Key findings from analysis of procedures led before the State Commission on Public Procurement Appeals in the period January - December 2017 </strong></p>
<ul>
<li>In 2017 companies lodged a total of 507 appeals before the State Commission on Public Procurement Appeals (SCPPA), which represents a decrease by around 9% compared to last year. </li>
</ul>
<p>Most appeals were lodged against decisions on selection of the most favourable bid (65%). Next important grounds for lodging appeals, accounting for 15% of all appeals, concerned decisions taken by contracting authorities to annul tender procedures, while 8% of appeals were lodged to contest tender documents.</p>
<p>For more information, please contact the Center for Civil Communications at (02) 3213-513 or at <a href="mailto:center@ccc.org.mk">center@ccc.org.mk</a>.</p>