Presentation given by Erkan Ozdemir of the Turkey PPA at the 7th Regional Public Procurement Conference held in Vlora on 9-10 Sept 2014.

1. THE REPUBLIC OF TURKEY
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Public Procurement Legislative Experiences in Turkey
7th IPA Regional Public Procurement Conference
9 – 10 September 2014 Vlora, Albania
ERKAN OZDEMIR Public Procurement Specialist
Regulation Department Public Procurement Authority
erkanozdemir@kik.gov.tr

2. Turkey-EU Relations on Public Procurement
TURKEY-EU negotiations for accession to full membership started on 3 October 2005.
The accession negotiations are conducted chapter by chapter and the public procurement is taking place as the 5th chapter among 35 chapters.
Under Public Procurement chapter two screening meetings were held in Brussels on 7 November 2005 and 28 November 2005. Following the screening meetings a screening report was issued by the EU Commission and 3 opening criteria were stated through a letter send by Austria’s presidency (May 2006).
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3. Three opening benchmarks can be summarized as:
1-Tasking an institution for the coordination of legal arangments in the area of public procurement in order to guaranteeing a coherent policy during the pre-accession period.
2-Preparation of a strategy paper which should include the time-schedules and stages with regard to the full compliance of the public procurement legislation and the establishment of the necessary administrative capacity
3-The alignment of the national legislation with the EU acquis in ‘scope, definitions and exceptions’.
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Turkey-EU Relations on Public Procurement

4. Through an amendment to the legislation for the roles and responsibilities of the Ministry of Finance, the MoF has been designated as the coordinator body for the policy issues related to public procurement. Thus the first opening criterion was fulfilled.
First and second draft strategy paper and an action plan has been prepared and submitted to EU Commission for taking its opinion in 2009 and 2010. Strategy paper has not been finalized yet.
In order to enhance alignment with the acquis in terms of scope, exclusions, definitions and thresholds, concrete steps will be taken in the process of alingment.
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Turkey-EU Relations on Public Procurement

5. Historical Background and Reform in Public Procurement
In the last decade, in order to align its public procurement legislation with the EU, Turkey has made extensive and comprehensive reforms and “Public Procurement Law”, (PPL, Law no:4734) and “Public Procurement Contracts Law” (PPCL, Law no:4735) were adopted by the Parliament on 4 January 2002 and both Laws came into effect as of 1 January 2003.
The PPL No: 4734 governs the rules and principles of the new public procurement system, while PPCL No: 4735 establishes the principles and procedures related to making and implementing public procurement contracts.
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6. Historical Background and Reform in Public Procurement (cont.)
In the following period, these two laws (PPL and PPCL) were amended several times in order to increase transparency and competition in public tenders, as well as to reflect new legal initiatives at the EU level.
The most important amendments to the PPL resulted from efforts to implement a number of the key provisions of the EC Directive 2004/18/EC and the introduction of the concepts of framework agreements, dynamic purchasing system, electronic auction, prior information notice, standstill period and electronic notification to Turkish public procurement legislation.
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7. Historical Background and Reform in Public Procurement (cont.)
 Since March 2011 many stages of the public procurement process such as preparing the tender documents and contract notices, downloading of tender documents and submission of contract award information has been conducted electronically over the Electronic Public Procurement Platform (EPPP) established by the PPA in September 2010.
EPPP is one of the most important e-government applications with over 46.000 registered economic operators, 28.000 registered contracting authorities and 465.000 registered users is being continuously improved.
At present, for individual contracts awarded through framework agreements, all procurement procedures including the electronic submission and electronic evaluation stages, can be done in 7

8. Historical Background and Reform in Public Procurement (cont.)
Along with this reform in the legal framework, the institutional framework of the public procurement sector has also been changed significantly. A financially and administratively autonomous regulatory body, namely the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) had been established to regulate and monitor the public procurement field.
These new arrangements constituted a major shift in the functionality of the public procurement system of Turkey.
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9. Scope and the Aim of the PPL No: 4734
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At present, the scope of the PPL No: 4734 is as wide as to cover procurements, which amounts to approximately 30 billion € (in year 2013), by all kinds of public entities and public economic enterprises as well as their specified partnerships governed by public law, or under public control or using public funds. PPL aims;
to cover a wide range of public agencies spending public money,
to regulate the public procurement sector through the uniform rules and principles,
to comply with international standards and rules,
to ensure fundamental principles on transparency, competition, equal treatment, accountability and public supervision.

10. Tender procedures
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PROCEDURES
OPEN
PROCEDURE
All suppliers who
respond to a contract
notice may submit
a tender
RESTRICTED
PROCEDURE
Only those suppliers
who have been selected
and invited following a
pre-qualification procedure
may submit tenders
NEGOTIATED
PROCEDURE
1) With publication of a contract notice
2) Without publication of a contract notice
Direct purchasing (art. 22)
Design contest (art. 23)
Special procedure for procurement of consultancy services (art. 48-52)

11. Awarding criteria
The PPL provides two possible award criteria for the selection of the best offer (economically most advantageous tender)
The lowest price only
Price and other factors relating to the subject matter of contract, such as operation and maintenance costs, cost-effectiveness, productivity, quality, and technical merit.
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12. Further Legislative Initiatives (Utilities Sector)
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Today, Turkish legislation on the award of public contracts is, to a large extent, compatible with the EU requirements.
However, there is no specific unified legislation in Turkey coordinating the rules and principles relating to the utilities sector and concessions/PPP’s.
Public utilities contracts are currently partially covered by the PPL.

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Article 47 of the Turkish Constitution provides that concessions may only be granted to the extent regulated by law. Therefore concessions may be granted only if a law is enacted for the grant of such concession.
In Turkey there is no single law that coordinates the rules and principles relating Concessions/PPPs. They are regulated by several sector specific laws.
For example concessions related to construction, maintenance and operation of highway are governed by law No 3465 adopted in 1998 and the construction and renovation of integrated health facilities through the public private partnership (“PPP”) are governed by Law No 6428 adopted in 2013.
Further Legislative Initiatives (Concessions/PPPs)

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Turkey intends to make some new legislative improvements and amendments with regard to utilities, concessions/PPPs that will take place in the forthcoming years, in order to be in full compliance with the EU public procurement system. In this context, the Ministry of Finance, PPA and other related institutions will work closely with EU partners.
Further Legislative Initiatives

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