Public Procurement: 28 identified violations in three months

Prishtina, 11 November 2011– Movement FOL, has organized a press conference presenting the report “Procurement Monitor” for the period July ” September 2011. This publication is made in the context of many activities that FOL movement has organized regarding public procurement since March of this year. The findings of this report are based on the monitoring of procurement system of Kosovo institutions, respectively, the data obtained by directly monitoring of contracting authorities, researches, decisions of the PRB and the media.

Program Manager at Movement FOL, Fidan Kalaja, during the conference stated that “during this reporting period there were several developments in the area of procurement. In August of this year, Kosovo’s government has approved a new law on public procurement, which was approved by Parliament and become applicable with the enactment of the Presidency of the Republic of Kosovo “. According to him, it is disappointing that “this law does not contain any positive change in terms of increasing transparency and accountability of procurement procedures.” He stressed that “the findings of this analysis show that the new law on public procurement has not reduced bureaucracy, by not responding to article 120 of the Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo, by not providing transparency, accountability and efficiency in spending public money.”

During this period the Ministry of Internal Affairs was searched and there were arrests connected with investigations into corruption and misconduct in the procurement of this ministry. But, Fidan Kalaja said that “investigations of misconduct in public procurement should be intensified and produce concrete results considering the high level of corruption in this sector”. In this context, “the situation of procurement in the Ministry of Health is alarming, where the concerns raised by Movement FOL regarding misuses in this ministry are ignored by the institutions while allowing continuation of misuses and corruption just like before with the tenders of the Ministry,” he concluded.

Project Coordinator, Armend Pajaziti presented the findings of this report. He said that during this reporting period July-September “The Government has violated the law in 12 different tenders.” Also, the Procurement Review Body – PRB has fined the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development, and has threatened to fine the Ministry of Health for failing to respect the decisions of the PRB. According to him, “the trend of legal malpractice and violations continued in public enterprises PTK and KEC, which indicates that these enterprises have not shown willingness to prevent abuses and violations that are occurring in the procurement of these enterprises.” “It is concerning that during this period, the municipalities have committed violations in 14 different tenders, which constitutes the largest number of violations compared to the violations that municipalities have committed in the previous period,” said Armend Pajaziti.
During this conference, Movement FOL offered recommendations that would increase the level of transparency of these procedures and will prevent abuse and corruption that is taking place in public procurement in Kosovo.