<p>SKOPJE, December 28, 2012 – Today the Centre for Civil Communications published findings from their monitoring of public procurement procedures in Macedonia covering the period from July to September 2012.  Some of the key findings are:</p>
<ul>
<li>There is a continually increasing problem of annulment of larger tenders -  those for procurement of goods and services costing more than 20,000 euros or for implementation of works costing more than 50,000 euros.  There is an increasing trend of adopting decisions to annul such tenders mainly because the estimated value of the procurement is lower than the bids offered by the companies.</li>
<li>Some institutions continue to disobey the rule for accurate definition of the evaluation criteria. Instead of the quality of a bid, some tenders mainly appraise the experience of the bidding companies. </li>
<li>In the third quarter of 2012, 210 contracts amounting to 14 million euros were concluded through non-transparent negotiating procedures without publishing a call for bids. Overall, in the first nine months of 2012, the value of such contracts amounted to approximately 32 million euros. </li>
<li> A comparative analysis of the Macedonian legislation and seven European countries indicates that no other country creates so-called ”black lists” of bidders that are banned from participating in tender processes for a given time period (1 to 5 years) for activating  bank guarantees. </li>
</ul>
<p><a href="images/stories/15_eng.pdf">The monitoring report </a>is available on-line at <a href="undefined/">www.ccc.org.mk</a>.  For further information please contact the Centre for Civil Communications at (02) 3213-513 or at <a href="mailto:center@ccc.org.mk">center@ccc.org.mk</a>.</p>
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<p><strong> NOTE TO EDITORS:</strong><strong> </strong></p>
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<p>The USAID Civil Society Project is a two and a half-year project financed by USAID and implemented by the Foundation Open Society - Macedonia in partnership with: the Center for Civil Communications; Youth Educational Forum; Reactor - Research in Action; and Forum - Center for Strategic Research and Documentation.</p>
<p>The American people, through USAID, have invested over $500 million in Macedonia since 1993. USAID is working with the people of Macedonia to create jobs, strengthen democratic institutions and practices, enhance integrated education, and prepare students for the workforce. These initiatives improve the quality of life and support Macedonia’s transition to a stable and prosperous democracy. USAID provides economic and humanitarian assistance in more than 100 countries. For more information please visit <a href="http://macedonia.usaid.gov/">http://macedonia.usaid.gov</a> and USAID FB page <a href="http://www.facebook.com/USAIDMacedonia">http://www.facebook.com/USAIDMacedonia</a>.</p>