FOL: Public Procurement Law prevents transparency

Shpërndaje në:

Prishtina, March 26, 2012 – Today Movement FOL held a press conference, publishing “Analysis of Changes in Public Procurement Law – in the context of the Principle of Transparency ‘.The purpose of this legal analysis is to highlight the degree has the Public Procurement Law in the Republic of Kosovo managed to provide for the implementation of the principle of transparency in public procurement procedures.

According to project coordinator, Armend Pajaziti, “the new version of the draft law, approved in August 2011, repeats many of the weaknesses of the previous law.” He further added that “this law is still far from EU standards in the field of public procurement, what is confirmed also in the Progress Report of the European Commission for the year 2011”. Also, according to him “this law does not meet the required needs of transparent procedures and some new procurement procedures are regulated in a way that excludes the possibility of public information and leave the opportunity for exclusion of Economic Operators from competition”.

Meanwhile, legal analyst in this movement, Admir Salihu, noting the many weaknesses of this law, said that “almost none of the recommendations of civil society is taken into account by the Government and the Assembly”. According to him, “one of the issues that directly affect the application of proclaimed principle of transparency in procurement activities is the paragraph on exceptions of certain procurement activities (Article 3, paragraph 1)”. He further stressed that “this law allows the Government to exclude from the scope of this law certain procurement activities, what puts into question the transparency of spending public money of the citizens of the Republic of Kosovo”.

Meanwhile, speaking of the many uncertainties that characterize the scope of the main institutions of procurement, PPRC and PRB, he claimed that “the competencies of public procurement institutions should be revised, because there is a great confusion among the PPRC and PRB, regarding which is the final interpreter.
At the end of this conference are also provided numerous recommendations for changing this law.