Motion for the new Law on public procurement enables even greater misuse of public funds

Transparency International Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BiH) and civil society organization “Tender”, explicitly criticize the motion for the new Law on public procurement, which will, with its new amendments, instead of removing the present ambiguities  and legal gaps,  additionally enable the circumvention of legal procedures in public contracting procedures. In explanation, the census for direct agreements is raised from 3.000 KM to 6.000, and more importantly, the amount for the supply of goods and services, in terms when public advertising is not predicted as mandatory, is raised from 30.000 KM to 50.000 KM. “New regulations will enable nontransparent procurement more often, and up to a much higher limit. With this, the discretionary decision making of public servants will increase and we can predict with certainty that there will be more embezzlements and damage to the budget”, said Emir Djikic, Chairman of the TI BiH Board of Directors.

Budget analyses show that up to 3 billion KM is spent every year on public procurement in BiH, and more recent research say that even up to 25% of all that is being spent irresponsibly through various kinds of legal omissions and corruption. These new regulations will leave more space for manipulating with tender procedures and abuse of public funds in contracting processes.

TI BiH and “Tender” several times appointed their concrete anticorruption propositions to authorized institutions and individuals in order to make the new Law on public procurement more efficient and transparent, and to ensure more rational and responsible disposal of budget resources. However, these proposals have not at all been considered or accepted so far.  Similar behavior continues by organizing the public debate on the Law on public procurement on March 11, without inviting the representatives of civil society, who could certainly give their contribution to the creation of the Law and its appropriateness to the local circumstances, with more severe sanctioning measures for breaking the Law.

TI BiH and “Tender”, therefore, jointly appeal to the private sector, civil society, media and the general public to pressure the authorized institutions and legislative powers, through engaging in the public debate, and prevent the attempt of widening the space for corruption in public procurement, meaning to request a more transparent and accountable new Law on public procurement. “The advantages of a high quality legal solution are many: besides the fact that it saves tax payers’ money, it enables a more equal distribution of budget resources. However, transparent public procurement is highly important for the development of the economy and the private sector, because it does not protect the companies with powerful political background or ‘connections’, but it gives equal opportunities for participation, to all. This way, new workplaces are created, and the tax policy and spending insufficient public income is improved”, emphasized Djikic.