New public procurement portal from July 1, 2020 – Bids to be made electronically

A new public procurement portal will be implemented in Serbia from July 1, 2020, which will enable electronic public procurement procedures. This is a new feature in the Draft Law on Public Procurement, which is currently undergoing the necessary procedure at the parliament. This means that the communication and exchange of data in public procurement procedures, including the submission of bids, will be carried out electronically, through the Public Procurement Portal.

The Ministry of Finance says for Tanjug that this will make for greater transparency in public procurement procedures.

The opening of bids should also be done electronically, which, as they estimate, will make business entities trust the system more, which should in turn lead to increased competition in public procurement procedures.

The new law also defines new amounts, limits beyond which the law is implemented.

There's also a new kind of public procurement procedure – a partnership for innovations, which procuring entities can carry out if they need innovative goods, services or works, and which can be realized through a procurement procedure or the works available on the market.

As the Ministry of Finance explains, partnership for innovations contributes to the development of innovative goods, services or works and their subsequent procurement, under the condition that the procured item is in line with the required degree of development and within the cost limit agreed between the procuring entity and the supplier within the partnership.

The draft law defines shorter deadlines for certain public procurement procedures in the fields of healthcare and social protection and culture.

New criteria for the awarding of contracts are implemented. Contracts are to be awarded for the economically most favorable offer, which is defined based on the price or the costs, or the ratio of price and quality, that is, costs and quality.

Public procurement procedures for social and other special services, which include healthcare and social protection services, as well as cultural services, will be carried out in line with a special regime in terms of shorter procedure deadlines.

New techniques and instruments for the awarding of the contract – a qualification system and electronic catalogs – are added, the Ministry of Finance adds.

As for the protection of rights, solutions which will make this protection more efficient are planned.

Administrative fees for filing requests for the protection of rights are reduced, and decisions on violations of the Law on Public Procurement Procedures are to be made by misdemeanor courts.

Ministarstvo finansija Republike Srbije

public procurement portal

Draft Law on Public Procurement Procedures

Law on Public Procurement Procedures

opening of bids

partnership for innovations

health protection

social protection

culture

qualification system

electronic catalogs