A Conference “Information technology in the Public procurement System of Bosnia and Herzegovina“, organized by the EU Delegation to BiH, the BiH Official Gazette and the BiH Public Procurement Agency was held in Sarajevo on Monday.
E-procurement–is about the use of electronic communication and transaction processing by government institutions and other public sector organisations when buying supplies and services or tendering for public works. Its objectives are to simplify and improve public procurement administration through ICT. This may require the existing procurement rules or practices to be revised to permit a fuller exploitation of the benefits of eProcurement and at the same time create savings for both sides in procurement transactions.
Maria Farrar-Hockley, Head of the Operations Section for Justice and Home Affairs and Public Administration Reform at the EU Delegation, said that the process of conducting public procurement represents an area that displays well how the EU internal market works. „Through it, billions of public funds are spent each year and therefore, the need to make the process as transparent as possible“, said Farrar-Hockley and added that the European Commission plays an important role in the attempts to expand the use of eProcurement in the EU. “It is opening up its new e-CERTIS, data base which is a free, web-based tool to help companies and contracting organisations cope with the documentation demands encountered when tendering for public contracts in the EU” said Farrar-Hockley
E-procurement was facilitated by an EU directive adopted in 2004. Bosnia and Herzegovina’s adjustment to EU law will entail implementing this system. “BiH is yet to fully transpose the directives of 2004 as part of its obligations under the Stabilisation and Association Agreement. It is the only country in the region that has not yet done so. BiH needs to transpose these directives quickly because new EU legislation might be in force soon. Also, the market is evolving, different national solutions are being developed and one must work hard to keep pace with new developments. Bosnia and Herzegovina has no option but to further converge its legal regulations with that of the EU. Not switching to eProcurement also means missing the opportunity to reduce the time taken to procure, make the process simpler and cheaper – benefits which are being realised by those who have already made the change” said Maria Farrar- Hockley.
The Director of the BiH Public Procurement Agency, Đinita Fočo, explained that the public procurement system in Bosnia and Herzegovina has developed since the Law on Public Procurement was enacted in 2004. The law was based on existing EU directives but since then the EU has adopted new directives. Among other things, these have established the basis for electronic procurement, which must now also be implemented in Bosnia and Herzegovina since this is a commitment under the Stabilization and Association Agreement. Although there have been two attempts to amend the law, on both occasions the amendments were not accepted by the BiH Parliament. Fočo said that a new draft law on public procurement is in preparation and will be presented to the state authorities by the end of the summer.
She added that before the introduction of an electronic public procurement system, analysis of the economic feasibility of the project needs to be carried out and software costs need to be assessed. When this has been done, donors will be approached with a view to securing funding since it is unlikely that funding could be secured through the domestic budget. She pointed out that Romania paid 5 million Euros for its electronic procurement software.
Bosnia and Herzegovina has committed itself to establishing an electronic public procurement system by 2015. During the conference current practices, projects and plans in the area of electronic procurement were presented, and challenges that Bosnia and Herzegovina is likely to face in this field were addressed. It is indicative of the state of public procurement in Bosnia and Herzegovina that until 2010 the contracting authorities had an obligation to deliver reports on public procurement procedures to the Agency for Public Procurement by mail. They had to fill in a form obtained from the Agency, and the Agency had to process the information in order make a report to the Council of Ministers. Since the online system for submitting reports (WisPPA) was introduced, this process has become faster, easier and more secure.
