The EU funded project “Strengthening the public procurement system in Bosnia and Herzegovina” was officially presented on July 10 at the Delegation of the European Union to Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo. The project will last 24 months and will assist in the implementation of the new Law on Public Procurement adopted at the end of April 2014. The new Law provides for simplification, transparency and clearer rules and regulations. It also introduces the most modern tools of public procurement in line with the EU directives and lays down the foundations of the future e-procurement system.

Severin Strohal, Head of Operations Section for Justice and Home Affairs and Public Administration Reform at the Delegation of the European Union to Bosnia and Herzegovina, reflected on the advantages of being part of the EU’s single market and the potential savings initiatives in public procurement can bring. “Introducing electronic procurement techniques makes the process simpler and cheaper and benefits realised by EU Members States that made changes several years ago are counted in millions of euros. The EU Delegation, as BiH’s partner on this integration path, will stand ready to support the country strengthening its procurement system both with technical advice and financial means,” said Strohal.

The project was presented by László Velikovszky, Team Leader, who stressed that the project will assist the drafting of secondary legislation, support the establishment of a sustainable training system and identify sensitive points for corruption in the public procurement process. “The biggest goal of the project is to train as many actors in the system as possible and to provide them with high level, practical knowledge that can be used in their day-to-day practice and can contribute to the better operation of the system” said Velikovszky.

The two main beneficiaries of the project are the Public Procurement Agency and the Procurement Review Body of BiH. Up to 1,500 individuals involved in procurement procedures in public institutions but also from the private sector, media, NGOs and the judiciary will be offered training in the application of procurement procedures.

“Our biggest priorities for the next two years are to further develop and modernise the procurement appeal system, to make it faster, more transparent and easier to use. We do want to reduce the extremely high number of appeals. We believe that this project will greatly contribute to our efforts,” stated Ostoja Kremenović, Chairperson of the Procurement Review Body.

Đinita Fočo, Director of the Public Procurement Agency, said: “This is a key opportunity for BiH to achieve the long awaited goal – modernisation of the public procurement system. We have worked for more than 10 years to have our new Public Procurement Law passed and I truly believe that with that we have made a tremendous step towards, opening the door to a simpler, easier to handle, more modern set of rules and practices in the field of public procurement. With the help of the project, a great number of people will be trained“.

Marian Lemke, Senior Adviser at SIGMA/OECD, looked back at the evolution of BiH’s public procurement legislation and system since 2004, when the first BiH law on public procurement was adopted.

The EU is funding this project from the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA 2012) in the amount of 1,371.760 EUR. The project aims at contributing to the improvement of the public procurement legal framework and enhancing its efficiency and transparency in Bosnia and Herzegovina. These actions will further improve the management of public finances in accordance with EU rules and enhance the trust of the general public.