A roundtable discussion on the activities and problems of public procurement in Gjakova

Gjakova, July 16, 2014 – Today, FOL Movement has organized a roundtable discussion in Gjakova on the topic “Public procurement activities in the first six months of the year.” During this meeting was presented a report with summarized statistics on procurement activities initiated by Gjakova municipality.

Participants in this meeting were the Mayor of Gjakova, Mimoza Kusari-Lila, Acting Director Jalal of procurement, Xhelal Halilosmani, assembly members of various political parties and representatives of civil society and media. Kenan Tora from FOL Movement said that the purpose of that meeting was to discuss the possible problems and irregularities that might go with the development of public procurement procedures in Gjakova Municipality. He further went on with the findings of the report of the municipality stating that during the first 6 months of this year Gjakova Municipality has announced 28 contract notices, 14 notices of contract award, 14 cancellation notices and 1 cancellation of the award, whereas the PRB has taken a decision against Gjakova Municipality by returning a procurement activity in re-evaluation. Regarding the problems that are generally present in public procurement, he stressed the problem of non-standardization of the drafting process of the tender dossier, exceptionally low prices, non-coordination between different institutions and non-professionalism of evaluation committees.

Later spoke the Mayor of the Municipality of Gjakova, Kusari-Lila, who said that the findings of FOL Movement’s report in general are sustainable since these problems are present in public procurement. She went on to mention the tender which was disputable in the PRB, because the price is exceptionally low, where in the economic operator’s complaining bid there are units priced with 0.0001 euro which makes no sense at all. Kusari-Lila further said that the Public Procurement Law needs to be amended because it leaves room for interpretation in many areas and since she came to power has tried her best to separate public procurement from political governance at the local government and thus to prevent political influence in the process.

The acting director of procurement Halilosmani in meantime said that they tried to consist a committee by professional and asking each department or unit to carry the responsibility for drafting the specifications so that they are more professional.

On the other hand, Arbërie Nagavci, municipality assembly member from Self-Determination Movement said there must be done more in order that the committee members be professional and not be influenced whether by businesses or politics, because it is directly harming public money.