<h4><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #000000;">SKOPJE, September 6, 2013 – Today, the Center for Civil Communications published the monitoring results for public procurements implemented by local level institutions in the six-month period from October 2012 to March 2013.</span></span></h4>
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<h4><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #000000;">Comparative analysis of municipalities’ public procurements shows major disparities among individual municipalities, not only in terms of the total amount of public funds spent by means of public procurements, but also in terms of public procurement spending per capita that ranges from 2 EUR in the Municipality of Suto Orizari to 400 EUR in the Municipally of Centar.</span></span></h4>
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<h4><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #000000;">Regular monitoring of public procurements provides the following conclusions:</span></span></h4>
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<h4><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #000000;">- Certain shortcomings, remarks or inconsistencies noted in the implementation of public procurements are common for a dominant share of monitored local level procedures.</span></span></h4>
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<h4><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #000000;">- More than half of monitored procurement procedures required the companies to fulfil certain specific eligibility criteria for tender participation, thereby limiting the competition.</span></span></h4>
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<h4><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #000000;">- Although mandated by law, e-auctions were scheduled only in 53% of monitored procurement procedures. Dominant reason indicated for failure to organize e-auction was the fact that only one company or no companies submitted a bid.</span></span></h4>
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<h4><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #000000;">- The share of annulled procedures from the local level monitoring sample is on the same level compared to the previous monitoring period (15%). In one-third of annulled procedures, contracting authorities indicated that the procedure has been annulled due to the fact that they have not obtained a single bid.</span></span></h4>
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<h4><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #000000;">This Report is available <a href="images/stories/2eng.pdf">here</a>. For more information, please contact the Centre for Civil Communications on tel. (02) 3213-513 or by e-mail: center@ccc.org.mk.</span></span></h4>
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<h4><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #000000;">NOTE TO THE EDITORS:</span></span></h4>
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<h4><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #000000;">USAID Civil Society Project is a 2.5 years project funded by the USAID and implemented by the Foundation Open Society – Macedonia (FOSM) in partnership with the Centre for Civil Communications, the Youth Educational Forum, REACTOR – Research in Action, and Forum – Centre for Strategic Research and Documentation.</span></span></h4>
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<h4><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #000000;"> Since 1993, the American people, through the USAID, have invested over 500 million USD in Macedonia. USAID is working with the people of Macedonia to create jobs, strengthen democratic institutions and practices, enhance integrated education, and prepare students for the labour market. These initiatives improve the quality of life and support Macedonia’s transition into a stable and prosperous democracy. USAID provides economic and humanitarian assistance in more than 100 countries worldwide. For more information see: <a href="http://macedonia.usaid.gov">macedonia.usaid.gov</a> or follow USAID Macedonia on Facebook: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/USAIDMacedonia">www.facebook.com/USAIDMacedonia</a>.</span></span></h4>