<p>SKOPJE, 6 May 2016 – Today, the Center for Civil Communications published its monitoring report on public procurement covering the period July – December 2015, which also includes results and findings from the survey conducted among 254 companies and analysis of their appeal procedures.</p>
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<p><strong>Survey among companies related to their experience in public procurement where they participated shows that:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>two most frequent problems faced by companies in public procurement concern lowest prices as the single criterion for awarding public procurement contracts and delayed payment for contract performance; </li>
<li>average period of waiting for collection of receivables for contract performance amounts to 8 months; </li>
<li>79% of surveyed companies believe that corruption is present in public procurement, as follows: 37% of them indicated that corruption is often present, 10% indicated it is always present, while 32% of surveyed companies indicated that corruption is rarely present in public procurement. Only 21% of companies indicated that corruption is never present in public procurement.</li>
</ul>
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<p><strong>Key findings from monitoring of public procurement include: </strong></p>
<ul>
<li>costs for engagement of experts by the Council of Public Procurement in cases of issuing approval for tender procedures amounted to total of 2.2 million EUR, paid by contracting authorities; </li>
<li>every fourth tender procedure from the monitoring sample is characterized by only one bidding companies; </li>
<li>in 2015, contracts signed by means of negotiation procedures without previously announced call for bids accounted for more than 29 million EUR; </li>
<li>total of 19.9% of all public procurement procedures organized in 2015 were annulled. <strong> </strong></li>
</ul>
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<p><strong>Analysis of appeal procedures led in front of the State Commission for Public Procurement Appeals shows that: </strong></p>
<ul>
<li>for the entire 2015, only 523 appeals have been lodged among the total of more than 18,000 tender procedures implemented, which is indicative of an exceptionally small percentage of public procurement procedures appealed – 2.8%;</li>
<li>67% of appeals have been lodged against selection decisions for the most favourable bid. </li>
</ul>
<p>The monitoring report is available <a href="images/stories/26e.pdf">here</a> and at: <a href="undefined/">www.ccc.org.mk</a>. For more information, please contact the Center for Civic Communications by tel. (02) 3213-513 or by e-mail <a href="mailto:center@ccc.org.mk">center@ccc.org.mk</a>.</p>
<p>USAID Civil Society Project is implemented by the Foundation Open Society – Macedonia (FOSM) in partnership with the Center for Civil Communications, the Youth Educational Forum, Reactor – Research in Action, and Forum – Centre for Strategic Research and Documentation.</p>
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<p><strong>NOTE TO THE EDITOR:</strong></p>
<p>The American people, through USAID, have invested over $500 million in Macedonia since 1993. USAID works 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">macedonia.usaid.gov</a> and the Facebook page <a href="http://www.facebook.com/USAIDMacedonia">www.facebook.com/USAIDMacedonia</a>.</p>