Open Letter agaist Adoption of the New Law on Public Procurement

Civil society organizations in B&H, the signatories of this open letter, consider unacceptable the new proposal of the Law on Public Procurement for Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter: amendments to the  draft LPP for B&H), which will be found in the proceedings of the second reading of the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly on 29^th April 2014,  because it does not provide the minimum standards for successful prevention, education and sanctioning of the irresponsible participants in public procurement, as well as the transparency, competitiveness, efficiency and rational spending of budget funds in conducting the public procurement process.

As you are aware, before and during the public hearing in the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary assembly B&H a great number of the civil society organizations submitted numerous anti-corruptive Amendments to the draft LPP for B&H, commonly rated as necessary for successful and transparent conduction of public procurement in any contracting authority in B&H in regard to the current Law, especially to the new Amendments to draft LPP for B&H. Civil society organizations in their very important initiative aiming the Parliamentary Assembly of B&H, gathered for the first time anti-corruption and human rights organizations, employers and employers’ association, representatives of small and medium enterprises and their organizations, public companies and institutions from entire B&H. Publicly offered and reasoned decision of the civil society represents the minimum requirements for improving the proposed anti-corruption legal solutions and they include:

–        Avoidance of discrimination against bidders on different basis;

–        Prevention of conflict of interest of persons responsible for conducting  public procurement, without which there would be no corruption in this area;

–        Accountability and protection of whistleblowers who report irregularities in public procurement;

–        Enabling a higher level of transparency and broader social control of public procurement by publishing far more information on the Public Procurement Portal;

–        Committing all contracting authorities to publish annual procurement plans and reports on their execution;

–        Limiting the possibilities for execution of non-transparent procedures, particularly direct agreements and negotiated procedures without their publication;

–        Significant tightening of sanctions, not only for contracted authorities, because it is ultimately paid by taxpayers, but also for the responsible persons in the contracting authority, as well as the bidders and their responsible persons, who usually make the most of corruptive profit.

Our proposals for the Amendments to the Law were based on the current practice of public procurement in B&H and comparative analysis of legislations of all countries in the region, which have included the anti-corruption mechanisms to the new Law on Public Procurement in the past few years and for the short period of time have radically increased the level of transparency, accountability, competitiveness in this area as well as the significant savings of public funds.

Unfortunately, after the public debate and the amendment phase, proposals that came from the most concerned parties for improvement of the legal framework have been ignored by the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of B&H, which actually adopted by the ‘suspicious’ parliamentary majority purely cosmetic Amendments to the draft Law on Public Procurement.  That the voice of reason, responsibility and care for public funds has not been heard by the members of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of B&H shows the fact that Amendments to the draft LPP for B&H have been adopted by votes of 20 MPs out of 42 MPs in the revote procedure. Throughout the current legislative procedure the role of the completely indifferent international community for this very important reform project in B&H is not for commendation.

Further procedure and final adoption of the Amendments to the draft LPP for B&H in the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of B&H would be the step back in the fight against discrimination and the lack of transparency in public procurement in B&H, and it would be re-confirmation of the lack of political will to fight against corruption in B&H. Therefore, we appeal to all Members of the Parliamentary Assembly to act on the next session ethically and responsibly and to reject the adoption of the Amendments to the draft LPP for B&H, and thus protect the public interest and prevent the damage which corruption in public procurement can cause to the budgets at all levels in B&H.

Your vote AGAINST the Amendment to the LPP for B&H would enable further discussion of experts on this matter, the public hearing and amendments procedures which would actually improve the public procurement process in B&H, while your vote FOR the Amendments to the draft LPP for B&H would be a vote for increasing rate of corruption.

The representatives of the civil society in B&H:

1. Association of Employers of B&H- Director, Mr. Alija Remzo Baskic;

1. Open Society Fund of B&H- Executive Director, Ms. Dobrila Govedarica;

1. Association of Citizens “Tender”- Chairman of the Presidency, Mr. Ivan Stokić

1. Transparency International B&H- Chairman of the Board of Directors, Mr. Emir Đikić

1. Anti-Corruption network of Civil Society “Account”- Director, Mr. Eldin Karić