SkopjeDiem Macedonia in English
The draft-changes to the public procurement legislation have already been submitted to Parliament in the regular procedure. The text’s proponents, including VMRO-DPMNE MP Bojan Stojanoski, are adamant essential changes have been made.
However, they’re not giving up on plans to abolish administrative control (that is, replace it with administrative checks) nor on dismissing members of the State Appeals Commission. They’ve notified both the EU Delegation and the State Commission for Prevention of Corruption (SCPC) over that stand.
“So far, within the administrative control process, the check’s been done in a post-festum manner, that is, once the procedure ends. Over the past period, we’ve seen in this regard there was a lot of abuse over which, as we can see, the Prosecutor’s Office would issue press-releases. That way, situations were created in which some procedures were intentionally delayed in order to allow for there to be public procurement at a tete-a-tete as urgent public procurement. That’s why we believe the administrative checks need to come before the start of the procedure”, Stojanoski points out.
Following the consultations, the EU Delegation has told Kanal 5 it is closely following the matter. However, unlike before, it no longer considers the administrative control aspect to be problematic. The proponents have also said that SDSM’s amendment to publish the opinions on awarding state tenders on the Public Procurement Bureau’s website, aiming at greater transparency, has been accepted.
The draft-changes to the Law on Administrative Procedure will be on the agenda of the plenary session of Parliament on 16 January. VMRO-DPMNE hopes opposition parliamentarians, too, will vote in favour.
