FIGHTING CORRUPTION TOGETHER SERBIAN CASE Branimir Blagojevic - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

FIGHTING CORRUPTION TOGETHER – SERBIAN CASE Branimir Blagojevic Member of the Republic Commission for the Protection of Rights in Public Procurement Procedures www.kjn.gov.rs 20.5.2017. www.kjn.gov.rs 1

Building a Strong Public Procurement System  3 Main Components:  Legal Framework  Institutional Framework  Capacity Building ( Professionalisation ) 20.5.2017. 2

Legal Framework • Public Procurement Law (“Official Gazette of RS” No. 124/12, 14/15, 68/15) • Public Procurement Development Strategy 2014-2018 • Stage B - Full compliance of Serbian PP legislation with the EU acquis (2017) 20.5.2017. 3

Institutional Framework  The Public Procurement Office  The Republic Commission for the Protection of Rights in Public Procurement Procedures  The State Audit Institution  The Ministry of Finance  The Commission for Public Private Partnership  The Commission for Protection of Competition  The Anti-Corruption Agency 20.5.2017. 4

Institutional Framework  In April 2014 Memorandum on Cooperation and Coordination was signed between: PPO, Republic Commission, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Economy, State Audit Institution, Anti-Corruption Agency, Anti-Corruption Council and Commission for Protection of Competition 20.5.2017. 5

Institutional Framework – Public Procurement Office  Supervising implementation of the Public Procurement Law  Participation in drafting regulations and adopting bylaws in the area of public procurement  Giving opinions on implementation of the Public Procurement Law and opinions on the justifiability of applying the negotiated procedure  Managing the Public Procurement Portal  Activities in connection with negotiations on accession to the EU  Participation in drafting the anti-corruption plan  Initiating misdemeanour procedure and procedure to nullify contract  Preparing reports on public procurements 20.5.2017. 6

Institutional Framework – Republic Commission for the Protection of Rights in Public Procurement Procedures  Republic Commission is an autonomous and independent body of the Republic of Serbia, ensuring the protection of rights in public procurement procedures  Competences of the Republic Commission • Decides on requests for protection of rights in all public procurement procedures (equivalent to revision of public procurement procedures as in Directive EU 2007/66) • Decides in accordance with special competences 20.5.2017. 7

Professionalisation • Public Procurement Officer • PPL and Rulebook • Everyone can obtain Certificate (employees in CA, economic operators, civil sector…) • Procedure above 120.000 EUR – PP officer member of the Committee • CA whose overall annual value of planned PP exceeds 205.000 EUR, must employ at least one PP officer 20.5.2017. 8

Professionalisation • Public Procurement Development Strategy 2014-2018 • “The aim of further professionalisation of PP officers is to improve implementation of the PPL at all levels through training, …” • “The expected results include more efficient and cost-effective procurement, fewer irregularities and lower risk of corruption, as well as … applying EU acquis” • Training tailored for various categories 20.5.2017. 9

Building a Strong System Together Government Strong PP System Civil Business Sector 20.5.2017. 10

Strategy – Prevention of Irregularities • Protection of rights in PP procedures • Improvement of measures to prevent irregularities and fight against corruption • Raising awareness  The National Anti-Corruption Strategy and public procurement 20.5.2017. 11

PPL - Common measures for prevention of corruption • CA is obliged to take any necessary measure to prevent corruption in the course of public procurement planning, public procurement procedure, or implementation of public procurement contract, in order to reveal corruption on time, to remedy or mitigate adverse consequences of the corruption, and in order to sanction the actors of corruption in compliance with the law • Communication • Internal plan for combatting corruption in public procurement 20.5.2017. 12

PPL - Internal Act and Procurement Control • CA is obliged to adopt a bylaw to regulate the process of public procurement procedure in detail , and in particular the manner of planning procurement (criteria, rules, and the way for determining public procurement subject and estimated values, method of market analysis and research), responsibility for planning, public procurement procedure targets, the manner of executing obligations in the procedure, the manner of ensuring competition, conducting and controlling public procurements , the mode for monitoring implementation of public procurement contracts 20.5.2017. 13

PPL - Protection of Integrity of the Procedure • Person who participated in planning of public procurement, in preparing tender documents or separate parts thereof, and person related to him or her, may not act as a bidder or a bidder’s subcontractor, nor may cooperate with bidders or subcontractors in preparation bids. Otherwise, CA is obliged to refuse the bid and to immediately notify the competent state bodies thereon. • Where bidder or applicant have, directly or indirectly, given, offered or hinted some benefit, or tried to find out any confidential information or to influence in any way CA’s actions during public procurement procedure, CA shall urgently notify the competent state bodies thereon. 20.5.2017. 14

PPL - Duty to Report Corruption • Person engaged in public procurement or any other person employed by CA, as well as any interested person who possesses information on occurrence of corruption in public procurement, shall immediately notify thereon the PPO, the governmental body authorized for combatting corruption, and the competent prosecutorial office • …may not get employment or… • Person under Paragraph 1 of this Article may also address the public if ... 20.5.2017. 15

PPL - Prohibition of working engagement with supplier • Representative of CA who has in any way participated in public procurement procedures or persons related with him or her, where total value of contracts awarded in these procedures to a specific supplier within the last year prior to termination of his or her office or employment exceeded 5% of total value of all contracts that this contracting authority has concluded over that period, within the next two years after termination of office or employment with this contracting authority, may not... 20.5.2017. 16

PPL – Competition Foul • Declaration of Independent Bid • In case of reasonable doubt in veracity of declaration of independent bid, CA shall immediately notify thereon the organization in charge of the protection of competition • Each interested person or person employed or in any other way working with an interested person, is obliged to notify the organization for the protection of competition, if they are aware of any information on violation of competition in public procurement procedure 20.5.2017. 17

PPL – Competition Foul • Organization authorized for protection of competition may ban a bidder or an interested party from participating in public procurement procedure , where it determines that the bidder or the interested party violated competition rules in public procurement procedure within the meaning of the law governing protection of competition 20.5.2017. 18

PPL – Conflict of Interest • Conflict of interests for the purpose of this Law exists where... • CA may not award public procurement contract to bidder in case of existing conflict of interest, where the existence of such conflict of interests affected or could affect the decision making in the public procurement procedure • The Republic Commission at the request of CA will approve the concluding of contract under Paragraph 1 of this Article, provided that... 20.5.2017. 19

Ex ante control - Civil Supervisor  Where contracting authority conducts public procurement with estimated value exceeding RSD 1 billion (EUR 8.200.000) the procedure shall be monitored by civil supervisor  Persons eligible to be appointed for civil supervisors are prominent experts in the domain of public procurement or in areas related to subject of public procurement  Also eligible for civil supervisors are associations dealing with public procurements, prevention of corruption, or prevention of conflicts of interests  Civil supervisor shall be appointed by the PPO , not later than the day set in annual public procurement plan as tentative day to initiate public procurement procedure, i.e., within 30 days from the day of endorsement of public procurement plan

Ex ante control - Civil Supervisor  Contracting authority may not initiate public procurement procedure before the appointment of civil supervisor  Civil supervisor shall supervise public procurement procedure and, to this end, shall have permanent insight into procedure , documents and communication between contracting authority and interested parties, i.e., the bidders  Regulation on Civil Supervisor (Official Gazette of the RS, No. 29/13)