Presentation given by Borisav Knezevic of the Serbian PPO at the 7th Regional Public Procurement Conference held in Vlora on 9-10 Sept 2014.

1. PP Legislative experiences and needs & plans for development the legislative framework in Serbia
Borisav Knezevic, Public Procurement Office
SIGMA/Vlora, 9 September 2014

2. EXISTING PUBLIC PROCUREMENT LAW
•Adopted on 29 December 2012
•Entered into force on 6 January 2013
•Application started on 1st April 2013
•Significant harmonization with Directives 2004/18 and 2004/17, and partial with Directives 2009/81 and 2007/66

3. EXISTING LAW ON PPP AND CONCESSIONS
•Adopted on 22 November 2011
•Entered into force on 2 December 2011
•Partial harmonization with Directives 2004/18 and 2004/17

4. NEW PUBLIC PROCUREMENT DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY
•Existing Strategy – adopted on 9 September 2011
•Need to comply with new PPL (December 2012)
•Need to incorporate new legislative development in the EU
•Need to take into consideration Negotiations with EU-Chapter 5: Public Procurement
•New Strategy - validity period: 2014-2018
•Status: final proposal of Strategy should be sent to Government in the first week of September 2014
•Adoption expected: end of September 2014

5. ACTION PLAN FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF THE STRATEGY
•Integral part of the Strategy
•Period: 2014-2015
•For each year till 2018 new Action plans would be adopted
•Structure of the Action plan:
•Improving regulatory framework
•Strengthening of institutional framework
•Improving efficiency and sustainability of PP system
•Curbing irregularities in public procurement

6. ACTION PLAN:IMPROVING OF REULATORY FRAMEWORK
•Some activities to be emphasised:
•Analysis of the implementation effects of PPL in practice
•Amendments to the PPL (II quarter 2015)
•Gap-analysis of PPL with new EU Directives
•Gap-analysis of Concessions Law* EU with new EU Directive
•Analysis of other legal acts relevant for PP, concessions and PPP
*In the Negotiation Chapter 5: Public Procurement, concessions and PPP are also included as an integral part

7. HARMONIZATION WITH EU ACQUIS
•Basic documents:
•National Plan for Adoption of the Acquis(NPAA)
•Public Procurement Development Strategy (proposal)
•Harmonization schedule:
•Stage A – Partial harmonization
•Stage B – Complete harmonization
•Approach: harmonization with the new Directives on PP and the new Directive on Concession, not with the old ones
STAGE A WILL LAST TILL THE END OF 2015
STAGE B WILL LAST TILL THE END OF 2017

8. LEGISLATIVE CHANGES: STEPS
•Amendments to the PPL (II quarter 2015)
•The focus will be on “fine- tuning” of and corrections of “domestic” legal imprecisions noticed during the implementation of the existing PPL.
•Harmonization with EU acquis will not be primary focus of the amendments, BUT wherever is relatively easy to transpose certain provisions-it will be done
•New PPL: to be adopted by the end of 2017
-complete harmonization with the EU acquis
•New Law on PPP and concessions: to be adopted by the end of 2017
-complete harmonization with the EU acquis

9. EU ASSISTANCE
•Current:
•PLAC/POLICY AND LEGAL ADVISE CENTER (legal analyses)
•In the pipeline:
•TA project: Support for further improvement of Public Procurement system in Serbia (expected start: 2016)
•Twinning Light project: Fostering Protection of Rights in Public Procurement in Serbia (expected start: 2015)
•Continuous support:
•SIGMA (series of workshops, legal assistance)
•TAIEX (expert visits, workshops)

10. NOVELTIES
•New procedures and tools (competitive dialogue, FC, DPS)
•New institutes (civil supervisor-1bill. RSD+)
•Anticorruption provisions
•Publishing of all notices on PPO Portal (free of charge), except for values above 5 mill.RSD (and 10 mill RSD for works) that are published both on PPO Portal and on Portal of the Official Gazzette)

11. NOVELTIES (2)
•Introduction of partial centralisation of PP (including centralisation of medicines and medical services)
•Central register of EOs to prove eligibility to participate on tenders
•New system of quarterly reporting on conducted PP
•E-system for creation and submission of CAs’ annual plans of PP (to be submitted to the PPO and SAI)

12. RECENTLY ADOPTED BYLAW
•Rulebook on certification o PP officers
•Regulation on joint conduction of public procurement procedures
•Decree on PP procedure in the field of defence and security
•Bylaw on financing of multi-annual contracts

13. LEGAL ASSISTANCE TO OTHER AUTHORITIES
•To Ministry of Health – bylaw on centralised purchasing of medicines
•TO ADMINISTRATION FOR JOINT SERVICES - bylaw on centralised procurement
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•TO Ministry of Defence – bylaw on confidential procurement (defence and security procurement)

14. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PPL
•Necessary bylaws
•Adopted on time
•Fulfilled legal conditions for implementation of PPL
•PPO drafted bylaws or assisted in preparation of bylaws necessary for implementation of PPL
•NEXT PHASE: TO INCREASE COMPETITON IN PP (2,7 bidders per tender)
•Comprehensive analysis is needed to determine the causes for low participation of bidders

15. IMPLEMENTATION OF PPL:RESULTS
•Share of negotiated procedure without notice DECREASED from 24% the in first half of 2013 to 4% in(3,81%) in the first half of 2014
•Inter-institututional cooperation significantly improved (Memorandums of cooperation etc.)
•Register of bidders fully operational (4337 registered EOs so far)

16. % OF NEGOTIATED PROCEDURES WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE IN TOTAL VALUE OF AWARDED CONTRACTS

17. IMPLEMENTATION OF PPL:RESULTS (2)
•PPO launched 26 misdemeanor procedures against CAs that violated the PPL in the period March- August 2014
•Procurement planning software introduced on the web-portal of the PPO
•785 contacts were concluded through framework agreements (since 1st 2013)
•1245 contracts on PP were concluded through centralised procurement

18. IMPLEMENTATION OF PPL:RESULTS (3)
•17 civil supervisors were appointed by PPO
•90 opinions on joint conducting of procurement have been issued by PPO
•PPO is being analysed the reports related to modifications of contracts in order to find out if there are grounds for launching misdemenour procedure
•List of negative refferences -176 pieces of evidence of negative references have been received (must receive the evidences from 3 independent sources- so far only from 2 independent sources)

19. IN THE PIPELINE
Apart from 12 models, guidelines and instructions prepared by PPO (April-May 2014), the following 2 methodologies are under preparation:
•Methodology for analysis of procurement plans
•Methodology for perfomring supervision over the implementation of the PPL

20. PLANS FOR 2014 (END)/2015
•To start Negotiations for Chapter 5: Public Procurement
•To improve PP Portal (e.g. English version of Portal)
•To continue training of police and prosecutors in the area of PP
•To initiate the exams for PP officers
•To prepare Manual for CAs and Manual for bidders
•To prepare analyis of technical solutions in use in EU MS in the field of e-procurement
•To prepare guidance for improvement of economic performances of PP

21. •THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!