The main objective of the legal protection system in public procurement is to enforce the practical application of the legislation by ensuring that violations of the law, as well as intentional or unintentional errors of contracting authorities, can be corrected. A functional system of review and legal remedies is in the interest of all interested parties – economic operators, contracting authorities, as well as the general public. In accordance with the EU directives on legal protection, legislation in some EU Member States provides for the obligation (or only the possibility) of: • Filing a prior complaint to the contracting authority that has committed the alleged violation of the public procurement law (which is in any case not the first instance); or • Informing the contracting authority of the intention to request a review.

The Public Procurement Law of BiH prescribes a system of legal protection. A complaint in BiH may be filed by any economic operator that has or had an interest in the award of a public procurement contract and that makes it probable that damage was or could have been caused in a specific public procurement procedure due to the actions of the contracting authority, which are alleged in the complaint as a violation of the law and by-laws. (Article 97 of Active Legitimacy). The appeal is filed with the contracting authority, i.e. the Appeals Review Office (ARB), and the administrative dispute is initiated by filing a lawsuit before the Court of BiH.

The Appeals Review Office, whose members are appointed by the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH, as an independent institution with the status of a legal entity, is the backbone of the legal protection system in public procurement procedures in BiH. Due to the allegedly disproportionately large number of appeals in the previous ten-year period since the establishment of the public procurement system in BiH, the ARB changed its organizational structure by amending the Public Procurement Law in 2014, by political agreement, by establishing two branches (in Banja Luka and Mostar) and increasing the number of members. The headquarters of the ARB in Sarajevo employed 7 members, while the branches have 5 each. The establishment of these branches during 2015 was quite problematic, and the outcome of their establishment and appointment of members was a series of setbacks in the functioning of the legal protection system itself. Namely, due to the lack of experience in public procurement cases, as well as the lack of coordination between the PRB branches and the headquarters, the already fragile system faced a series of problems that led to significant delays in resolving cases, unequal treatment of similar cases, which led to considerable legal uncertainty, failure to publish decisions of branches on the Public Procurement Portal as a place intended for this, and a number of others. The result of the reform is that the PRB, which has as many as 17 members, which is more than in all countries in the region, is still not fully capable of resolving complaints in a professional, consistent and transparent manner.

In any case, given that it is the Complaints Review Office that encounters the largest number of irregularities in practice, through the increasing number of complaints from bidders, and that several years have passed since it was significantly increased in capacity, the legal protection system should finally record a move towards greater efficiency and better quality.

This document was prepared within the framework of the project “Making public procurement transparent”, financed by the Open Society Fund of BiH.


[Bosnian]

Pravna zaštita u javnim nabavkama

Osnovni cilj sistema pravne zaštite u javnim nabavkama je provođenje praktične primjene zakonodavstva osiguranjem da se kršenje zakona, kao i namjerne ili nenamjerne greške ugovornih organa, mogu ispraviti. Funkcionalan sistem revizije i pravnih lijekova u interesu je svih zainteresovanih strana – privrednih subjekata, ugovornih organa, kao i široke javnosti. U skladu sa direktivama EU o pravnoj zaštiti, zakonodavstvo u nekim zemljama članicama EU predviđa obavezu (ili samo mogućnost): • Podnošenja prethodne žalbe ugovornom organu koji je počinio navodno kršenje zakona o javnim nabavkama (a koji u svakom slučaju nije prvostepena instanca); ili • Obavještavanja ugovornog organa o namjeri da se traži preispitivanje.

Zakon o javnim nabavkama BiH propisuje sistem pravne zaštite. Žalbu u BiH može podnijeti svaki privredni subjekat koji ima ili je imao interes za dodjelu ugovora o javnoj nabavci i koji učini vjerovatnim da je u konkretnom postupku javne nabavke bila ili je mogla biti prouzrokovana šteta zbog postupanja ugovornog organa, a koje se u žalbi navodi kao povreda zakona i podzakonskih akata. (član 97. Aktivna legitimacija). Žalba se izjavljuje ugovornom organu, odnosno Uredu za razmatranje žalbi (URŽ), a upravni spor se pokreće tužbom pred Sudom BiH.

Ured za razmatranje žalbi, čije članove imenuje Parlamentarna skupština BiH, kao samostalna nezavisna institucija sa statusom pravnog lica, okosnica je sistema pravne zaštite u postupcima javnih nabavki u BiH. Zbog navodno neproporcionalno velikog broja žalbi u prethodnom desetogodišnjem periodu od uspostavljanja sistema javnih nabavki u BiH, URŽ je izmjenama Zakona o javnim nabavkama 2014. godine, političkim dogovorom, promijenio svoju organizacionu strukturu, uspostavljanjem dvije filijale (u Banja Luci i Mostaru) i povećanjem broja članova. U sjedištu URŽ-a u Sarajevu angažovano je 7 članova, dok filijale imaju po 5. Uspostavljanje ovih filijala tokom 2015. godine bilo je prilično problematično, a ishod njihovog osnivanja i imenovanja članova bio je u nizu zastoja u samom funkcionisanju sistema pravne zaštite. Naime, zbog nedostatka iskustva u predmetima javnih nabavki, kao i nedostatka koordinacije između filijala i sjedišta URŽ-a, ionako krhak sistem suočio se sa nizom problema koji su doveli do značajnih kašnjenja u rješavanju predmeta, nejednakog postupanja po sličnim predmetima što je dovelo do prilične pravne neizvjesnosti, neobjavljivanja odluka filijala na Portalu javnih nabavki kao mjestu predviđenom za to i niz drugih. Rezultat reforme je da URŽ koji broji čak 17 članova, što je više od svih zemalja u regionu, ni danas nije sasvim kapacitiran na rješava žalbe na profesionalan, konzistentan i transparentan način.

U svakom slučaju, obzirom da se upravo Ured za razmatranje žalbi susreće sa najvećim brojem neregularnosti u praksi, kroz sve brojnije žalbe ponuđača, te da je prošlo već nekoliko godina od kako je značajno dokapacitiran, sistem pravne zaštite bi konačno trebao da evidentira pomak ka većoj efikasnosti i boljem kvalitetu.

Ovaj dokument sačinjen je u okvira projekta “Da javne nabavke budu javne”, finansiranog od strane Fonda otvoreno društvo BiH.