Representatives of the Public Procurement Office participated in the Subcommittee on Internal Market and Competition, held online on 16 March 2022.
At the Subcommittee meeting, the European Commission was presented with contributions prepared by the competent state administration authorities on the following topics: 1) Protection and enforcement of intellectual, industrial, and commercial property rights; 2) Public procurement; 3) Right of establishment and freedom to provide services; 4) Banking, insurance, and other financial services; 5) Company law, accounting, and auditing; 6) Public health and consumer protection; 7) Competition policy.
In line with its competences, the Public Procurement Office reported in writing to the European Commission on the latest developments concerning:
- Alignment of legislation with the 2014 EU Directives on public procurement, including amendments to the Law on Public-Private Partnerships and Concessions;
- Experience with the electronic public procurement system in Serbia;
- Public procurement procedures conducted in relation to COVID-19;
- Implementation of the Public Procurement Development Programme of the Republic of Serbia for 2019–2023 and action plans for 2021 and 2022;
- Administrative capacities of the Public Procurement Office;
- Capacity building and training for stakeholders at all levels, including strengthening institutions, contracting authorities, and bidders;
- Measures to enhance control mechanisms in public procurement, including monitoring and increasing transparency in the contract execution phase, systematic risk assessment, and prioritisation of controls in sensitive sectors and procedures;
- Monitoring the implementation of the Law on Public Procurement, including conclusions and key results from the latest annual monitoring report;
- Capacities for preventing and combating corruption and conflicts of interest at central and local levels;
- Increase in the total value of exempted procurements from 2019 to 2020.
The meeting included more detailed discussions on:
- The timeline for adopting the 2022 Action Plan for implementing the Public Procurement Development Programme 2019–2023;
- Monitoring the implementation of the Law on Public Procurement, including conclusions and key results from the latest annual monitoring report prepared by the Public Procurement Office;
- The increase in the total value of exempted procurements from 2019 to 2020 and other reasons for this increase;
- The number of exemptions based on contracts concluded under the Law on Special Procedures for the Implementation of Projects for the Construction and Reconstruction of Line Infrastructure of Special Importance for the Republic of Serbia and other international agreements;
- The reduced use of the “economically most advantageous tender” criterion and measures undertaken to increase its application.
