Misuses become policy-making in public procurement

Prishtina, July 31 – Today, FOL Movement published its report “Procurement Monitor” for the period March-June 2014.
Kenan Tora from FOL Movement said that this report shows the irregularities in tendering procedures in ministries, municipalities and public enterprises of the Republic of Kosovo. He further went on to clarify that the report consists of two parts, the first part describes the monitored procedures with direct participation of FOL in various public institutions and in the second part describes the decisions of the Procurement Review Body during this 4 month period.
Later, Sibel Halimi continued with the presentation of the findings of the report saying that FOL Movement within the four month period has monitored 12 examination, evaluation and comparison of tenders’ procedures. Further, she said that among the 12 monitored tenders, eight were awarded to certain bidders, 3 were canceled on the recommendation of the evaluation committee because they received only one genuine bid, and one was returned for re-tender by the decision of the PRB.
According to Halimi, the key findings from monitoring carried out by FOL regarding the irregularities that are present in the tendering procedures are as follows:
• Non-standardization of the process of drafting the specifications and requirements in the Contract Notice, respectively in the tender dossier;
• Exceptionally Low Prices that often are present for various items on the bid of Economic Operators
• Non-coordination between public institutions such as Kosovo Tax Administration and other public institutions which tender often causes confusion regarding which document is valid or for what period;
Another problem that has been present in public procurement for a period nearly 8 months has been almost non-functioning of the PRB, which has damaged the public money and interest of economic operators.
PRB, after its re-functionalization in March, during the period March – June covered by this report, has taken 28 decisions, finding irregularities on non-compliance of the provisions of the LPP during the tendering procedures caused by public institutions such as municipalities, ministries and public enterprises.
Among these 28 decisions, 17 decisions have been returned the tenders for re-evaluation. Thus, two tenders initiated by the municipalities of Deçan, Ferizaj, Prishtina and Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, 1tender initiated by municipalities of Malisheva, Kamenica, Gjakova, Peja, Ministry of Public Administration, Ministry of Trade and Industry, Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports and Post – Telecom have been returned for re-evaluation.
On the other hand 8 decisions were taken for Re-tender. 1 tender initiated by the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Diaspora, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Infrastructure, Ministry of Finance, and 1 tender initiated by KEC and PTK are returned for re-tender.
Procurement Review Body with two separate decisions has canceled 1 tender initiated by KEC and one from the municipality of Rahovec, and with another decision has fined and taken away the certificate to the procurement officer in MAPL.
Check this link for full report: http://levizjafol.org/documents/20140731104208952.pdf