Law on Public Procurement Procedures to be amended – Quality and not price to be primary criterion in choosing contractors at tenders?

Construction companies will no longer be able to take part in tenders with dumping prices, thereby eliminating the competition. In choosing contractors for the construction of highways, railways, schools or hospitals, the focus will be on the quality, not the price.

This is one of the innovations proposed in the amendments to the Law on Public Procurement Procedures, which should make for a more just tendering, while also freeing the state from unnecessary costs. It has been proven many times that the lowest price is not always the best criterion, and the consequent costs were paid by taxpayers.

One example is Austria’s Alpina. This company, which went into bankruptcy in the meantime, had won the contract for the bypass route around Dimitrovgrad, having offered the price of EUR 17.3 million. The works were evaluated at EUR 33.3 million. During the construction, they claimed damages of EUR 33.6 million for unforeseen works, which brought the cost of the activities on that part of Corridor 10, on the Bulgarian border, up to EUR 50.9 million, Politika writes.

Changing the terms of tendering, implementing exemptions for the import of construction equipment not produced in Serbia (which will increase the efficiency of project realization) and the retraining of workers were the topics discussed by Prime Minister Ana Brnabic with representatives of the construction industry several days ago.

The proposed budget for infrastructure in 2019 is more than RSD 200 billion, which is the biggest amount so far. This means that the construction industry must be strong enough to keep driving our further growth – Brnabic emphasized.

The ministry of Construction is announcing a new investment cycle in the field of infrastructure, worth more than EUR 5 billion.

ALPINE Bau GmbH Wals bei Salzburg

Law on Public Procurement Procedures

Alpina Austria

dumping prices at tenders

Ana Brnabic

budget for infrastructure

terms of tendering