Electronik Procurement is necessary for transparency in public expnditures

Prishtina, 14th June – Today FOL Movement held a conference on “The Effects of Electronic Procurement in increase of Public Procurement Transparency”. At this conference participated representatives from Public Procurement Agency of the Republic of Albania, representatives of Public Procurement Regulatory Commission of Kosovo, representatives of various public procurement authorities, and civil society and media.

Fidan Kalaja from FOL Movement stated that FOL since 2011 is focused on monitoring public procurement procedures. “Considering that corruption in public procurement has been high and there is a lack of transparency in this sector, since 2011 we have recommended that public institutions should begin implementing electronic procurement to minimize corruption corruption cases in this system”. Considering that “FOL Movement has initiated the process of Kosovo’s membership in the Open Government Partnership – OPG, increasing the transparency of public procurement through implementation of e-procurement is the main criterion for membership thus the Kosovo Government must hasten the implementation of this system, “said Kalaja.

Bleda Muhollari from Public Procurement Agency of the Republic of Albania said that in Albania this system has started to be applied since 2009. “Electronic procurement system provides safe, efficient and transparent preparation and administration of all documents related to the tendering process, avoiding the submission of the documentation on paper ensuring a secure flow of data throughout the process”. According to her, this system significantly reduces the time of application, eliminates unnecessary documentation, facilitates and standardizes familiarization with tender conditions, guarantees the confidentiality of the bid, generates reports and their electronic storage for on line reviews, thus reducing the possibility of corruption. Muhollari stated that using this system “Albania became the first country in the world to implement an e-procurement system for all procurement procedures of public sector”. According to her “the implementation of this system had a profound effect on the growth of free competition where the number of bids for a tender procedure is increased from an average of 2 to 7 bids”.

The representative of the Public Procurement Regulatory Commission of Kosovo, Abdyl Limani, stated that the World Bank is preparing a strategic plan of electronic procurement system in Kosovo. “It would be easier for Kosovo to get Albania’s program, but experts from the World Bank claim that each country has its own specifics, therefore Kosovo should have a special electronic procurement system,” said Limani. According to him, until now the legislation on public procurement has had five changes. Even now is in preparation for other changes and soon they will be done as well. Limani said that according to the promises they received from the World Bank, by the end of this year, the electronik procurement system will be ready.
Alban Hashani from Riinvest Institute, said that in a similar meeting we were promised that in January of this year the electronic procurement will beging to be used and thus it would be good for PPRC and public institutions to give us a correct information about when this will happen” said Hasani.

In this conference was also discussed about how willing and prepared Kosovo institutions to implement such a system are, considering the application of advanced electronic technology. There were also discussions about many challenges that Kosovo will face regarding this process, the participants concluded that Kosovo should not waste more time and should begin as soon as possible the implementation of electronic procurement considering the positive effects this system will bring on the progress of public procurement procedures in Kosovo.