Of the 3,435 public procurement procedures with a total value of more than 590 million BAM, which were monitored by the “Pratimo tenders” portal, in almost 80 percent of the procedures there is a risk of corruption and other abuses. These are the data from the Monitoring Report of the Center for Media Development and Analysis and the “We Monitor Tenders” portal. Compared to previous years, there are certain developments, but the key problem is still the non-processing of cases of high corruption in Bosnia and Herzegovina. to the courts.
In almost 70 percent of public procurement procedures in Bosnia and Herzegovina, only one bidder appears, and the risk of corruption and other abuses is evident in all types of public procurement procedures, among which direct agreements are the most risky. Based on the monitoring of the portal “Pratimo tenders”, in the past year, public companies are leading in terms of irregularities.
“These are public companies related to the electric power sector, large utility companies, but we also have this one, which is the most specific, we have procurements by state institutions, institutions at the level of BiH that procured, which again is specific, from luxury cars to some food products, such as seafood fruits and the like,” points out Slobodan Golubović, editor of the “Pratimo tenders” portal.
Unlike previous years, when there were still public companies that did not have any risky public procurement procedures, this year the green flags for such companies will remain unallocated. The Center for Media Development and Analysis claims that BiH. public companies and state institutions do not hesitate even because of the daily pointing out to the public of harmful public procurement procedures.
“The fact that public procurement has become more transparent, the more it is announced what will be the subject of public procurement and how it will be implemented, has not reduced the riskiness of conducting the process and procedure of public procurement, that is what is actually worrying and to simplify, they openly stealing,” says Eldin Karić, executive director of the Center for Media Development and Analysis.
The monitoring showed that certain developments were made after the adoption of the Law and the amendments to the Law on Public Procurement of BiH, which entered into force on December 10 last year. The adoption of the changes led to a slight decrease in the total number of risky purchases compared to the previous year. However, there are still gaps.
“Defining the qualification conditions and technical specifications in the tender documentation, we have abuses in the appeals procedure, and what is most alarming is that in most of these public procurement procedures there is only one offer, there is no competition or it is suppressed,” says Golubović.
In the latest report of the European Commission on the progress of BiH, it was stated that public procurement is still subject to irregularities and sensitive to corruption. The European Commission is very concerned about the selective and non-transparent conduct of court proceedings in cases of corruption in public procurement. However, laws in BiH should be changed for such procedures, and there is no political will for that step.
