Focus groups thought that this institution should be changed from an advocacy institution to a decision-making institution in order to increase its efficiency
TIRANA, May 2 – Improving the Procurement Advocate’s appointment procedure, preparing sub-legal acts to strengthen its investigation procedures, and establishing cooperative ties with other procurement related-institutions are some of the recommendations to strengthen the role of this institution and make its contributions more efficient. The findings were unveiled from a recent survey conducted by the Center for Development and Democratization of Institutions (CDDI) with the support of the Millennium Challenge Corporation Albania Threshold Program II (MCCA2), administered by USAID.
According to its findings, economic operators (businesses) and contracting authorities believe that the Procurement Advocate (PA)’s work is necessary and helps make the public procurement process in Albania more effective, transparent, and fair.
Regarding the legal competences of the Procurement Advocate (PA), the participants in the focus groups thought that this institution should be changed from an advocacy institution to a decision-making institution in order to increase its efficiency.
Meanwhile, business participants in the focus groups argued that the PA should take various initiatives to propose legislative changes to the public procurement law and create precedents, particularly for issues such as the abnormally low bid price and its misrepresentation, improvement of standard tender documents, and standardization of specific qualification criteria.
The findings and recommendations were presented to the Procurement Advocate, representatives of public institutions involved in the procurement process, contracting authorities, the business community, civil society organizations, and international donors.
CDDI conducted the study from October 2010 – March 2011. As part of the activity, CDDI reviewed the PA’s legal framework, conducted focus groups with economic operators, and held in-depth interviews with representatives of contracting authorities in 6 districts throughout Albania and representatives from the three main institutions in the public procurement arena (Procurement Advocate, Public Procurement Agency, and Public Procurement Commission.)
The study evaluated the Procurement Advocate’s progress to date, benefits for the business community, public administration and the public at large, as well as issues that need to be addressed to strengthen its efforts toward an effective, transparent, and fair procurement process in Albania.
Established in November 2006, the Public Procurement Advocate is an independent institution defending bidders’ rights through monitoring and investigating public procurement and concession procedures in Albania, to assure adherence to the law and provide greater transparency and accountability from the competent authorities.
An earlier USAID supported study showed that half of the economic operators using Albania’s Electronic Procurement System (EPS) say they need further training on using EPS, despite the procedure being compulsory since January 2009.
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, the 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.
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.
