Presentation by Ana Durnic, Institute Alternative, Montenegro, on the role of civil society in monitoring the implementation of procurement rules, at the third regional conference on public procurement for ENP East countries, Tbilisi, 6-7 November 2019.

1. © OECD
3rd regional conference on public
procurement for ENP East countries
The role of civil society in monitoring the
implementation of procurement rules
Ana Đurnić, Institute Alternative, Montenegro
Tbilisi, 6-7 November 2019

2. Basic facts on PP in MNE
• Six years since Montenegro opened EU
negotiations within the Chapter 5 – Public
Procurement
• Eight years since the adoption of the Law on
Public Procurement
• New Proposal to the Law on Public
Procurement in procedure
• Negotiations – a continuous process of back
and forth with no major breakthrough
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3. The Vicious Circle of Amending the Law and
Monitoring its Implementation
• The Law on Public Procurement currently in
force was originally adopted in 2011 and has
been amended three times since
• Significant positive amendments adopted in
2014, with some more space for improvement
in terms of regulation and even more so
regarding implementation
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4. 2015: Corruption
Within the Law
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• public procurement data is either (a) not made
available at all, (b) not sufficiently credible when
made available, or (c) presented poorly
• poor implementation of legal provisions is widening
the vulnerability to corruption
• persons representing the contracting authorities in
procurement are not called to account;
• system enables for covering these practices and
presenting them as being within the scope of the
law

5. 2015 EC Report
• “Good progress was achieved with the
adoption of amendments to the public
procurement law at the end of 2014; however,
more work is needed to prevent corruption
occurring during the procurement cycle.”
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6. Missed opportunity for breakthrough in
negotiations
• 2017 amendments to the PPL caused subsequent
increase in non-transparent spending by the
Montenegrin Government
• Low value procurement: wide discretion of
contracting authorities; delays in adopting
internal acts; reduced transparency and
competitiveness; severely limited right to legal
protection
• 2017 – 2020: short-term transitional solution
taking root
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7. Security and Defense Procurement in a
Legal Vacuum
• The envisaged by-laws for security and defense procurement have
never been adopted
• The Law dedicates only two articles to these procurement
• The Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Defense and the National
Security Agency – claim that they do not conduct confidential
procurement activities as of May 2015
• Continued expenditures for these procurement are, allegedly, only
payments of obligations from previously concluded contracts
• Most documents are not publicly available and “INTERNAL”
• Reports of the State Audit Institution (SAI) are a rare testimony to
how the authorities take advantage of reduced transparency to
procure goods, services and works, whose purpose and essence is not
in line with the safety of the state and its citizens
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8. Confidential Procurement in
Montenegro: Far from Public’s Control
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9. Centralized Procurement:
Not There Yet
• Envisaged by the 2015 Public Procurement Law
and retained in the 2017 amendments
• Started implementing in January 2018 when the
Decree on Centralisation of Public Procurement of
Goods and Services” came into force
• Faces many obstacles and challenges in practice,
but its very introduction to the Montenegrin
public procurement system constitutes a step
forward, towards more efficient management of
this part of public spending
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10. Centralized Procurement:
Not There Yet
• Planning and reporting are largely decentralized
• There is no specific database on this segment of public
spending; cross-referencing the data from different sources
results in disparate aggregate values of signed contracts
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11. Centralized Procurement:
Not There Yet
• The Property Administration compensates for the delays by
launching urgent procurement requests and shortening
tender submission deadlines
• Centralised procurement activities are also delayed due to
the untimely actions of the Property Administration, as well
as the State Commission and Administrative Court – line
institutions in the remedy system
• The Property Administration often uses centralised
procurement to purchase a single vehicle
• January 2018 – June 2019: six out of ten procedures were
launched for the purchase of only one or two vehicles
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12. Centralised Procurement in Montenegro:
The beginning of a Long Road
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13. What we do with our findings?
• Organise events, debates, panels and meetings
with stakeholders;
• Participate in public consultations (if any) on
the PPL;
• Take part in the Working Group for EU
negotiations within Chapter 5 – Public
Procurement;
• Media campaigns
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14. The new PPL 2020
• October 2019 – Government adopted Proposal
for a new PPL (non-participatory drafted)
• It is expected implementation will commence
in spring 2020
• Largely in line with the EU Directives
• Many areas remained to be regulated by the
by-laws, which are yet to be drafted
• Public participation for by-laws?
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15. Thank you for attention!
ana@institute-alternativa.org
www.institut-alternativa.org
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