”Only one out of ten controlled public procurements in the past year can be considered not risky, while the other nine are in some way connected with corruption or are very risky, which is worrying data, ” it was said at the presentation of the Report on Anti-Corruption Monitoring of Public Procurements.
The report on anti-corruption monitoring of public procurements presents the annual results of the monitoring of public procurements monitored through the portal “Pratimo tendere” in the period from October 1st, 2021 to September 30th, 2022. It was presented on the occasion of marking the International Anti-Corruption Day and ahead of the entry into force of the Amendments to the Law on Public Procurement, which will take place tomorrow, on December 10th.
It is conducted with the aim of revealing to citizens and the public how public institutions, organizations, companies, and authorities spend money.
The monitoring report presents the results of monitoring 8.006 public procurement procedures worth 303.613 BAM. Elements of risk were determined in 7.219 monitored public procurement procedures, the total value of which is 277.523 BAM.
Slobodan Golubovic, editor of the portal “Pratimo tendere” said that of the 7.219 procurements that this portal has marked as risky, journalists can make as many investigative stories about their abuses.
He stated that ten types of abuses were committed, including non-disclosure of the procurement plan, discriminatory conditions, conflict of interest, and misuse of public funds.
“There is no legal obligation to publicly announce direct agreements in procurement plans on the websites of contracting authorities. Direct agreements are extremely non-transparent and subject to abuse. The transparency of direct agreements will be improved with new amendments to the Law,” noted Golubovic.
He explained that improved transparency will make it easier for those who follow these procedures, but also for prosecutors if “they feel like doing their job”. On the other hand, Golubovictold that the new provisions of the Law, which refer to the changeability of contracts, will lead to abuses in public procurement.
At yesterday’s conference, the “Green Flag” (”Zelena zastavica”) was awarded to the municipality of Citluk for its high level of transparency and open competition.
The Center for the Development of Media and Analysis (CRMA) and the “Pratimo Tendere” portal implement the activity of anti-corruption monitoring of public procurement within the project “Support to citizens in the fight against corruption”, which is implemented by the Centers for Civic Initiatives (CCI), the CRMA and Transparency International (TI) with the financial support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Detektor reports.
E.Dz.
