TIRANA, Feb. 14 – A Euro 1 million project funded by the EU will enable the improvement of Albania’s public procurement, concession and auction system over the next years. The project will bring EU expertise and know-how from Member States to assist Albania in completing its public procurement legislation and improving its practices in line with those applied by EU Member States. The project ultimately contributes to Albania’s EU integration endeavours, the EC Delegation to Albania.
The EU has long assisted Albania in improving its public procurement system. Building on improvements achieved in the past, this twinning project will further support the Albanian Public Procurement Agency through activities and trainings that are tailor-made to its needs.
The twinning between the Albanian Public Procurement Agency, the Polish Public Procurement Office and the Romanian National Authority for Regulation and Monitoring Public Procurement, will bring to Albania experts from EU Member States to assist on a wide range of subjects, including approximation of the Albanian legislation with EU standards; preparation of an Action Plan for the implementation of the procurement system reform; strengthening of the capacity of the Albanian Public Procurement Agency, Contracting Authorities and other relevant actors dealing with public procurement processes; and drafting a Communication Strategy on public procurement for the Public Procurement Agency.
During the launch ceremony, the Head of the European Union Delegation to Albania, Ambassador Ettore Sequi emphasised the importance of public procurement reform for EU integration. Albania is required to harmonise its public procurement system to that of the EU, a harmonisation that has made business in the EU market predictable and reliable. He pointed out that “the vast EU market that Albania seeks to join operates and relies upon rules that are known, rules that are non-discriminatory, respected, and business-friendly”. Ambassador Sequi also pointed out the need to work for an efficient, transparent and accountable public procurement system as an important step in the fight against corruption, a key priority for Albania in its integration process. “Spending public resources”, he noted, “implies the mandatory use of public procurement rules enforced on the widest possible range of procurement processes. A proliferation of ad hoc procurement processes must be avoided as it undermines the consistency, general applicability, and credibility of the procurement system as a whole”.
The Euro 1 million project will continue until 2012 and it will be implemented by Polish Public Procurement Office with the support of the Romanian National Authority for Regulation and Monitoring Public Procurement.
Amendments to prevent deals
The Competition Authority has suggested that the public procurement law must be amended in order to prevent possible prohibited agreements among companies participating in tenders to provide public services. In some recommendations sent to the Public Procurement Agency few months ago, government and Parliament, the Authority suggests that some articles of the competition law must be amended.
The Authority also recommends that the legal framework should foresee that Contracting Authorities must notify the Competition Authority in cases they identify signs of prohibited agreement in public procurement procedures. The Public Procurement Agency has also been recommended to draft guidelines on the fighting and discovering secret deals.
According to the Competition Authority, these kinds of public procurement agreements which are banned in all OECD countries, affect taxpayers, lower public confidence in a competitive process and benefits from a competitive market.
The decision came after the Competition Authority identified some abuses in some investigations carried out into the public procurement of new cars.
The changes are first of all aimed at raising awareness among companies to prevent prohibited agreements in public procurements and clarify the officials’ role in case of identifying abuse case.
Under the government decision mandating that starting January 1, 2009, all public institutions should issue procurements only through EPS, thus eliminating the use of paper-based procurement procedures, Albania became the first country in the world to implement a 100% electronic procurement system for all public sector procurements above the threshold of 3,000 Euro.
The achievement was internationally recognized when on June 23rd, 2010, PPA received the 2nd place (behind Germany) in the Public Service Awards Program, among public organizations from fifteen countries recognized for excellence in public service by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
