Purposeful public procurement can be considered to be a public procurement that, with timely and rational planning and implementation of the procedure, procures goods, services or works of appropriate quality, at the most favorable price, and that achieves the objectives of the contracting authority in accordance with established (state, regional, local, etc.) policies and priorities. The 2014 European Union reform package on public procurement pays particular attention, among other things, to the purpose of the subject of procurement, redefining the very concept of public procurement in the direction of strategic policies.

In order to achieve important public procurement objectives, recent reforms at the global level concerning this area, including those at the EU level, have shifted the focus from the formal stages of the procedure to the entire procurement cycle, from the initial identification of needs to the contract implementation phase. Thus, the control of the purposefulness of public procurement does not focus only on compliance with formalities, but also on the justification of the procurement itself and the fulfillment of its purpose, and of the control institutions, these issues are mostly dealt with by the audit services of the Supreme Audit Office within the framework of performance audits. Based on the given definition of the expediency of public procurement, it can be inferred that the basic criteria for its assessment are contained in the 3E concept, i.e. the principles of economy, efficiency and effectiveness. Due to the significant risk of corruption to which public procurement is prone, in recent years a fourth E has been added to the 3E concept – ethics, and this is formally achieved by permeating the principle of transparency throughout all phases of the procurement cycle, incorporating provisions on integrity and preventing conflicts of interest into regulations, determining draconian penalties for violators of regulations that should have a deterrent effect, and the like. This approach is particularly important for transitional societies in which processes of initial capital accumulation occur accompanied by an insufficient legislative and institutional framework, which is undoubtedly fertile ground for corruption. Thus, the Report accompanying the Opinion of the European Commission on Bosnia and Herzegovina’s EU Membership in 2019 confirmed that corruption remains widespread and a problem, and that all levels of government show signs of political capture, which directly affects the daily lives of citizens, especially in the areas of health, education, employment and public procurement. The same is confirmed by the latest Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index, according to which BiH fell 11 places, receiving the worst rating in the last 8 years, and is ranked among the countries that are regressing the most in the fight against corruption.

The provisions of the Draft Law on Amendments to the Public Procurement Law which provide for inspection supervision by the Agency, stipulate that tender documentation in its entirety is subject to supervision, including technical specifications in cases where there is external or internal expertise related to the subject of procurement (a request to the Agency may also be submitted by other competent institutions and interested parties, in addition to the bidders themselves). Similar practices have already been established by the Cooperation Agreement with the coalition gathered around the project “Making public procurement transparent” within which Transparency International in BiH submits to the Agency identified irregularities in the technical specifications, which the Agency forwards to contracting authorities for comment and action. A positive novelty related to the proposal for amendments to the Rulebook on Monitoring Procedures is that it redefines the definition of monitoring from a narrower examination of compliance, which is dominantly dealt with in the current Rulebook, to monitoring in a broader sense as a systematic observation of the public procurement system in order to assess the functioning and development of the system over time, in order to establish whether the target or desired state has been achieved. According to the findings of the real-time monitoring of public procurement by the coalition gathered around the project “Making public procurement transparent”, the lowest price criterion is used even in cases where the estimated value of the public procurement itself is overestimated, and the desired outcome is achieved through overly demanding technical specifications and/or overly standardized conditions for the qualification of bidders, which ultimately often cannot be linked to the subject of the procurement and the real needs of the contracting authorities.

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


[Bosnian]

Svrsishodnost javnih nabavki u Bosni i Hercegovini

Svrsishodnom javnom nabavkom može se smatrati ona javna nabavka kojom su, uz blagovremeno i racionalno planiranje i provođenje postupka, nabavljene robe, usluge ili radovi odgovarajućeg kvaliteta, po najpovoljnijoj cijeni, i kojom se ostvaruju ciljevi naručioca – ugovornog organa u skladu sa utvrđenim (državnim, regionalnim, lokalnim i td.) politikama i prioritetima. Reformski paket Evropske unije o javnim nabavkama iz 2014. godine naročitu pažnju posvećuje, između ostalog, i svrsi predmeta nabavke, redefinišući sami koncept javnih nabavki u pravcu strateških politika.

Da bi se ostvarili važni ciljevi javnih nabavki sve skorije reforme na globalnom nivou koje se tiču ove oblasti, uključujući i one na nivou EU, fokus su pomjerile sa formalnih faza postupka na cijeli ciklus nabavke, od inicijalnog utvrđivanja potreba do faze realizacije ugovora. Tako i kontrola svrsishodnosti javnih nabavki u fokusu nema samo poštovanje formalnosti, već samu opravdanost nabavke i ispunjenost njene svrhe, a od kontrolnih institucija ovim se pitanjima najviše bave službe glavne revizije u okviru revizija učinka. Već se na osnovu date definicije svrsishodnosti javnih nabavki naslućuje da su osnovni kriteriji za njeno ocjenjivanje sadržani u konceptu 3E, odnosno načelima ekonomičnosti, efikasnosti i efektivnosti. Zbog značajnog rizika korupcije kojima su javne nabavke sklone, konceptu 3E se posljednjih godina dodaje i četvrto E – etika, a to se formalno postiže prožimanjem principa transparentnosti kroz sve faze ciklusa nabavke, inkorporiranjem odredbi o integritetu i sprečavanju sukoba interesa u propise, određivanjem drakonskih kazni za prekršioce propisa koje trebaju imati odvraćajući efekat i slično. Ovakav je pristup naročito važan za tranziciona društva u kojima se dešavaju procesi prvobitne akumulacije kapitala praćeni nedostatnim zakonodavnim i institucionalnim okvirom, što je bez sumnje plodne tlo za korupciju. Tako je i Izvještajem koji prati Mišljenje Evropske komisije za članstvo Bosne i Hercegovine u EU iz 2019. godine potvrđeno da je korupcija i dalje široko rasprostranjena i da predstavlja problem, kao i da svi nivoi vlasti pokazuju znakove političke zarobljenosti, što direktno utiče na svakodnevni život građana, posebno u oblasti zdravstva, obrazovanja, zapošljavanja i javnih nabavki. Isto potvrđuje i posljednji Indeks percepcije korupcije Transparency International-a, prema kojem je BiH pala za 11 mjesta, i dobila najgoru ocjenu u posljednjih 8 godina, te je svrstana među zemlje koje najviše nazaduju u borbi protiv korupcije.

Odredbama Nacrta Zakona o izmjenama i dopunama Zakona o javnim nabavkama (ZIDZJN) kojima se predviđa inspekcijski nadzor od strane Agencije, tenderske dokumentacije su u cjelini predviđene kao predmet nadzora, uključujući tehničke specifikacije u slučajevima u kojima postoji eksterna ili interna ekspertiza vezana za predmet nabavke (zahtjev Agenciji mogu podnijeti i druge nadležne institucije i zainteresovane strane, osim samih ponuđača). Srodne prakse su već utemeljene Sporazumom o saradnji sa koalicijom okupljenom oko projekta “Da javne nabavke budu javne” u okviru koje Transparency International u BiH dostavlja Agenciji utvrđene nepravilnosti i u dijelu tehničkih specifikacija, koje Agencija proslijeđuje ugovornim organima na izjašnjenje i postupanje. Pozitivna novina vezana za prijedlog izmjena Pravilnika o praćenju postupaka je i da se njome redefiniše definicija praćenja od užeg ispitivanja usklađenosti, kojom se dominantno bavi aktuelni Pravilnik, ka praćenju u širem smislu kao sistematskom posmatranju sistema javnih nabavki u cilju procjene funkcionisanja i razvoja sistema tokom vremena, da bi se ustanovilo da li je dostignuto ciljno ili željeno stanje. Prema nalazima monitoringa javnih nabavki u realnom vremenu od strane koalicije okupljene oko projekta “Da javne nabavke budu javne”, kriterij najniže cijene se koristi čak i u slučajevima kada je sama procjenjena vrijednost javne nabavke precjenjena, a željeni ishod se postiže suviše zahtjevnim tehničkim specifikacijama i/ili prenormiranim uslovima za kvalifikaciju ponuđača koji se u konačnici često ne mogu dovesti u vezu sa predmetom nabavke i stvarnim potrebama ugovornih organa.

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