Uncompetitive public procurements reduced by 5% in 2014 - How did companies evaluate tenders in Serbia

The number of uncompetitive public procurements, that is, negotiations without a previously issued public call, was reduced from 17% in 2013 to 5% in 2014, Predrag Jovanovic, the director of the Public Procurement Administration (PPA), pointed this out as the most significant change in the last year when presenting the survey "Public Procurements from the Perspective of Bidders" at today's conference in the Serbian Chamber of Commerce (SCC).
- In that way, bidders are enabled to win contracts in a transparent fashion and without limiting the competition. It is particularly important to know that this option exists with public enterprises which are deemed the biggest buyers in the public procurements market with their procurements accounting for 55% of the total value of public procurements. The most eminent companies in this category are Elektromreza Serbije and Elektrovojvodina that negotiated without issuing a public call in less than 1% of public procurements, which should serve as a positive example to other purchasers as well - Jovanovic noted.
Half of them are neutral
According to Dr. Jovanka Vukmirovic, a survey on public procurements in Serbia in 2014 and 2015 was conducted in June among 1009 enterprises that registered a turnover in the previous year, and the opinion was asked from owners and managers engaged in public procurement deals. The results show that nearly a half of those polled (48%) are neutral on public procurements, 35% have a negative opinion, while 15.4% are positive.
- About three fourths of the polled companies said they had participated in public procurements in 2014 and 2015, which points to a high level of interest of companies in public procurements. Enterprises choose not to partake in public procurements if conditions are too strict or if they assess that too much time would be spent to make an unproportionally low profit – Vukmirovic stressed.
An average percentage of successful participation of enterprises in public procurements amounted to 34%. The companies that were polled partook in 38 public procurements and won 13, on average, which means they won every third tender.
- The bigger the company, the bigger the number of biddings and tenders won – Vukmirovic explained.
eKapija as important source of information
The first-ranked source of information on public procurements for bidders is the public procurements portal (70%), followed by commercial web portals, reporting services, companies that announce calls for tenders, personal contacts, websites of public enterprises, partner companies, eKapija, and the Official Gazette.
About three fourths of the polled people gave a high mark when asked to evaluate the transparency and usefulness of the public procurements portal, while main objections were related to its layout and user-friendliness in the opinion of about a third of those polled.

- By the end of this year, we will make some significant improvements to the Search feature on the web portal because it directly affects the participation of bidders in public procurements. If they cannot easily get required information on the procedure, bidders will choose not to partake in it because, as a rule, they do not have enough available time for a more complex search – Jovanovic underlined.
The polled companies suggested that the web portal should also announce plans for procurements and estimated values because bidders believe that if the estimated value is not revealed, "preferred" bidders can learn it from the purchaser, while others are deprived of that information and their bids cannot be competitive.
When are tenders "prearranged"?
About 40% of companies that participated in the survey cited put-up public procurements as one of the main reasons for them to decide not to bid. When asked how they can tell if the call for tender is prearranged, they said that, in most of the cases, tender conditions indicate so (deadlines, technical specification, price, etc.).
Those polled also stressed that purchasers often used the "lowest price" criterion out of ignorance and the lack of knowledge about the subject of procurement and market, so it was necessary to educate people responsible for public procurements at purchasing companies.
Irina Milosevic

Uprava za javne nabavke Beograd

Privredna komora Srbije

eKapija.com Beograd

Službeni glasnik Beograd

Elektromreža Srbije a.d. EMS Beograd

EPS Distribucija Beograd - Elektrovojvodina Novi Sad

Agencija za privredne registre

Public Procurement Administration

PPA

Serbian Chamber of Commerce

SCC

eKapija

Official Gazette

Predrag Jovanovic

Jovanka Vukmirovic

Nermina Ljubovic

bidder

bidders

tenders

public procurements

negotiations without public call

Public Procurements from the Perspective of Bidders

Elektromreza Srbije

Elektrovojvodina

purchasers

public procurements portal

Business Register Agency

BRA