Focus group with procurement officials at central institutions

Prishtina, 22 February 2018 – Lëvizja FOL has held a focus group discussion with public procurement officials in certain ministries. During this discussion was debated about the importance of opening procurement plans as a means of promoting transparency and increasing accountability to citizens.

The present officials noted that the opening of the plans is not a problem since with their opening would benefit the contracting authorities and procurement departments as they often face problems that may arise during procurement activities.

Lëvizja FOL presented statistics on the realization of public procurement planning in the Ministry of Finance, Economic Development, the Office of the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare. From the presented statistics, was discussed on budget deviations occurred during the implementation of the central procurement plans and processes.

Given that public procurement planning is the main stage from which the entire public procurement process is based, Movement FOL has monitored procurement plans in central Kosovo institutions.

It was a joint conclusion with procurement officers in certain ministries that:

The legal framework should be unique and harmonized and should regulate the opening of procurement planning,

The CPA should plan and publish joint procurements within certain deadlines by avoiding duplication of planning both in contracting authorities and CPAs,

Preliminary planning should begin and end earlier, not at the end of year, as this gives space to contracting authorities to give more detail in planning.