BRATISLAVA, January 19, (WEBNOVINY) — The Cabinet approved at its regular Wednesday session the proposal of deputies from all four ruling coalition parties to make the process of public procurement stricter and more transparent. The change should be brought by the amendment to the law on public procurement with proposed effectiveness as of March 1, which parliament moved into second reading in December of last year.
At the same time, the changes, initiated in November of 2010 by a group of coalition deputies, should increase the effectiveness of public finances, transparency and reduce space for corruption and cronyism. The amendment counts with obligatory usage of electronic auctions at above limit orders and as of January 1, 2012 also at sublimit orders, which was included in the program statement of current government.
The other aim of the amendment is to actively promote equality of chances of the bidders. In the past, many bidders were excluded from bidding for reasons that were difficult to examine. Room for speculative exclusion of inconvenient bidders will be reduced, for example in the form of subsequent price manipulation or annexes increasing the value of a contract. While the current law does not limit the price increase via annexes, the new regulation will only allow price increase by 15 percent at most.
According to the proposal, not fulfilling the formal requirement should not be reason to exclude a bidder from a competition. Moreover, terms that are obviously custom made for a specific supplier will be eliminated. Procurers will only be allowed to use restricted tenders when they justify why they cannot use a public tender.
SITA
