There is a large number of public procurements in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) that are suspected or proven to be illegal. It is necessary to fully accept the conditions of the European Union (EU) to reduce the possibility of these illegalities.
How much doubt there is in the legality of public procurement is also shown by the fact that some people characterize it as public theft. They are the personification of corruption, because they are an opportunity for corruption. As a result, BiH is one of the worst-ranked European countries according to the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI).
According to the latest report, out of 180 countries, it was the third worst in Europe and the worst in the region. Corruption in public procurement and society in general is not just a matter of perception, but an illegality that directly worsens the life of every human being.
Corruption in public procurement or tenders implies an unacceptable way of spending money that did not fall from the sky, but that you earned as citizens of the state.
More precisely, it means that the person who had the most favorable offer for e.g. reconstruction of the street will not be paid, but the one who, through corruption or other illegalities, secured in the tender that he would reconstruct the street, and did not have the most favorable offer, will be paid with the money which was earned by hard work. At the same time, it is questionable how well they will do it.
Tenders on the eve of elections and during the pandemic
In the non-governmental organization Transparency International (TI), they noticed that the consumption of budget money, which also refers to public procurement, was more intense before the last general elections. At the end of August last year, they mentioned that it was for the purpose of buying votes.
“Unfortunately, unlike the neighboring countries, BiH did not introduce a limit on public spending in the pre-election period, which was also a key resource that was misused for buying votes and promoting candidates in 2022,” said TI.
They also singled out the following information in support of the previously mentioned statement.
“The data show that in the entire BiH, since July 1st, 249 works worth 845 million BAM have started, 227 works worth 175 million BAM have been completed, and the total value of public works in these two months has already exceeded the annual value of all works that are, according to the data of the Agency for Public Procurement, contracted throughout 2021″, they indicated.
Already great doubts about public procurement have increased during the coronavirus pandemic. In Transparency, they determined that there were unjustified requests from individuals that due to the pandemic, i.e. emergencies, the Law on Public Procurement of BiH be temporarily suspended. They believe that this was not justified because, as they stated, there were no legal barriers to procurement in situations of extreme urgency.
Nevertheless, there were indeed exemptions, so from January 1 to September 25th, 2020, as they pointed out, 25,886 public procurements worth as much as 270.2 million BAM were realized. The biggest doubt about the legality of the tender is the purchase of 100 ventilators for 10.5 million BAM in the Federation of BiH (FBiH) and the purchase of a mobile hospital for 3.6 million BAM in the Republika Srpska (RS).
TI: Missing key changes
The Law on Public Procurement is unique for the whole of BiH, i.e. it is applied by municipal, cantonal, entity, state and Brcko District authorities. The state authority is responsible for its amendments.
At the end of August last year, it adopted amendments to this law, claiming that it fulfilled one of the key conditions on the path to the EU. At TI, however, they don’t think so. In fact, they think the key changes and amendments are missing, which are:
Improvement of the mechanisms for sanctioning law breakers, both in the domain of misdemeanor and criminal liability;
Expanding the possibility of protecting the public interest;
Elimination of political influence on the appointment and work of members of the Appeals Review Office;
Continued development of the e-procurement system (online database on public procurement);
Strengthening the capacities and mechanisms of supervision of institutions in the public procurement system.
The executive director of Transparency, Ivana Korajlic, told in October last year that the amendments to this law missed the essence, which is the fight against corruption in public procurement.
There is fear that corruption could be further encouraged, and another reason for dissatisfaction is that the threshold for awarding contracts through direct agreements, without public bidding, has been increased from 6,000 to 10,000 BAM.
The EU welcomed the amendments to the Law on Public Procurement, but it is clear that this law will need to be significantly improved in order to fulfill one of the 14 criteria of the Union, which is the rule of law. Fulfillment of that criterion implies the harmonization of domestic legislation on public procurement with EU legislation, Klix.ba reports.
E.Dz.
