This presentation was made by Zoran Blazevic, Croatia, at the SIGMA webinar held on 11 May 2021, on effective and efficient review of appeals.

1. © OECD
A
joint
initiative
of
the
OECD
and
the
European
Union,
principally
financed
by
the
EU
THIRD ONLINE WORKSHOP FOR PROCUREMENT REVIEW BODIES
Co-operation between the PPO and PRB
- Development of the public procurement
system – lessons learned
Zoran Blažević, Temporis Consulting Ltd, Croatia
11 May 2021

2. A
joint
initiative
of
the
OECD
and
the
European
Union,
principally
financed
by
the
EU
Content
• Role of the PRB’s and PPO’s
• Common problems in daily work
• How to improve public procurement system’s
• Way forward
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3. A
joint
initiative
of
the
OECD
and
the
European
Union,
principally
financed
by
the
EU
Role of the PRB’s and PPO’s
• PRB - to enforce the practical application of public procurement
legislation by ensuring that violations of the PPL and intentional
or unintentional mistakes of contracting authorities/entities can
be corrected.
• PPO - primary policy and legislative functions, secondary policy
and regulatory functions, international co-ordination functions,
monitoring and compliance assessment functions.
 Advisory and operations support functions
 Publication and information functions
 Professionalisation and capacity-strengthening functions
 Development and procurement co-ordination functions
• Administrative capacity of a central public procurement
structure?
2

4. A
joint
initiative
of
the
OECD
and
the
European
Union,
principally
financed
by
the
EU
Public procuremnt structure
3
rz
ECONOMIC
OPERATORS
CONTRACTING
AUTHOROTIES
PRB’s
PPO’s
Court’s
SAI
Other
institutions
• PPL / PPP/ BY-LAWS / MAUNALS / INSTRUCTIONS
• Is this system functioning well in practice?
• How to deal with the problems?

5. A
joint
initiative
of
the
OECD
and
the
European
Union,
principally
financed
by
the
EU
Problems in public procurement
• Typical causes of the problems: institutions, legislations or
persons in charge.
• When one problem is solved, what happens? The solution
often creates new problems.
• Important question - why did the problem arise?
• When change happens, problems arise: what to do in a new
situation or with the new events ahead?

6. A
joint
initiative
of
the
OECD
and
the
European
Union,
principally
financed
by
the
EU
How does changes cause problems?
• Any entity (physical / legal) is composed of several individual
systems. System = the set of subsystems
• When a change occurs, the subsystems do not change
synchronously. Some change faster than others.
• Different speed of subsystem response to changes, leads to
system imbalance. System imbalance = problem.
• Latest changes in the public procurement systems:
 New PPL, by-laws, manuals, PRB cases
 Era of digitalization (e-procurement, internal e-systems)
 Changing of the public procurement paradigms (lowest price/MEAT, e-
tenders, evaluation phase, new procedures)
 Each elections, national or local
• As changes accelerate, problems are created faster. Most
entities/people have more problems than they can not control.

7. A
joint
initiative
of
the
OECD
and
the
European
Union,
principally
financed
by
the
EU
sdf
CA’s
EO’s
PP
Procedures
• Problems in practical
application of the PPL
• Needs of the end users
– Satisfied or not?
• Legislation (laws/by
laws, internal rules…)
• Institutional set-up (PPO,
PRB, CPB, SAI, Court’s…)
Public procurement subsystems
E - SYSTEM

8. A
joint
initiative
of
the
OECD
and
the
European
Union,
principally
financed
by
the
EU
What kind of problems are there?
• Simple/complicated/complex
• Problem overlap (economic/technological/medical/legal/global)
• Problem where solutions are unknown:
o The causes are unknown and have yet to be discovered
o The causes are known
• Problem where there is a solution:
o Solutions with certain results
o Solutions with uncertain results
o Solutions that needs to be prioritized

9. A
joint
initiative
of
the
OECD
and
the
European
Union,
principally
financed
by
the
EU
Ways to solve problems
Type of problem Nature of an appropriate solution
The problem with unknown cause Find the cause
The problem with known cause Find ideas that can fix the problem
The decision between solutions with
secure results
Decide on the best solution. What is
the best solution?
A decision between solutions with an
uncertain result
Decide which solution has the highest
probability of success
Unrelated list of problems Make a list of priorities.
• Not making a decision means making a decision - doing nothing.
• Doing nothing out of fear or different reasons = a path to crisis.
• If you define the problem correctly, you almost have the
solution.
• How PRB’s and PPO’s can work together to improve pp system?

10. A
joint
initiative
of
the
OECD
and
the
European
Union,
principally
financed
by
the
EU
How to improve public procurement
system’s?
• Define the problems with the cooperation of all involved parties
• Understandable and logical strategic development
• Change management (new PPL, MEAT, evaluation phase, more
tasks on the CA’s side, new e-systems, new elections…)
• Level of knowledge of contracting authorities, and economic
operators?
• Annual reports, manuals, case studies, instructions, practical
examples…
• Administrative capacity of a central public procurement
structure?
• Avoidance of repeating the same mistakes twice!

11. A
joint
initiative
of
the
OECD
and
the
European
Union,
principally
financed
by
the
EU
Way forward...
• Increased transparency of work of each institution and the
system
• Timely exchange of information in useful and readable
manner
• Clear, useful and understandable Annual reports
• Clear main messages to the contracting authorities and
economic operators
• Do not avoid the problems / solve them / there is a way!
10

12. A
joint
initiative
of
the
OECD
and
the
European
Union,
principally
financed
by
the
EU
Time for….
Questions and comments ???
Temporis Consulting Ltd.
www.temporis.hr
E-mail: zoran@temporis.hr
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