Regional Conference for Public Procurement Review Bodies in EU Enlargement countries

 

The regional conference for public procurement review bodies in EU Enlargement countries, jointly organised by the State Appeals Commission in Skopje and SIGMA, took place on 9-10 June 2016, in Ohrid, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. It was opened by the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, Mr. Vladimir Peshevski. The conference brought together chairpersons, board members and key staff of the Procurement Review Bodies of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo^*, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey. It provided an opportunity to increase awareness and promote the importance of a well-functioning public procurement review system, with a particular focus on international good practices, and to foster co-operation and knowledge-sharing among procurement review bodies from the region.

The two days of the conference were dedicated to sharing experiences of:

• The implementation of the Remedies Directives in the EU Member States.

• The independence of the review bodies and the requirement of impartiality in decision-making.

• The transparency of the procurement remedies system.

• The quality of the decisions issued by review bodies (including how to ensure involvement of special expertise in the review proceedings and how to avoid focusing on purely formal errors and omissions).

• The organisation of the review bodies. 

The event was interactive and based on case study presentations (presenting experiences of both EU Member States and EU Enlargement countries). The conference followed a participant-focused format. Each session was dedicated to a specific topic, and began with a short introductory presentation (given by an expert/representative from an EU Member State or the representative of the European Commission) which was followed by one or two country presentations on the topic concerned. A panel discussion moderated by a representative of one of the invited countries closed each session, allowing enough time for each country to share its own experiences. 

At the end of the conference, the participants expressed their interest in holding more regular regional events to allow for consultation between review bodies and other stakeholders in public procurement, either bilaterally or multilaterally, in order to exchange information, advice and models that would inform and promote their own initiatives.

Complete package of conference documentation.

• Agenda (Albanian, Bosnian-Serbian-Croatian, Macedonian, Turkish)

• Participants list

• Opening Speech by Maja Malahova, President of the State Appeals Commission of The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (Macedonian)

• Opening Speech by Karen Hill, Head of the SIGMA Programme

• Questions for the panel discussions (Albanian, Bosnian-Serbian-Croatian, Macedonian, Turkish)

• Key conclusions by Erika Bozzay, Senior Adviser, SIGMA/OECD

Presentations by speakers

Marta Laszuk, European Commission

Hubert Reisner, Judge, Federal Administrative Court of Austria

Goran Matesic, President, State Commission for the Supervision of Public Procurement Procedures, Croatia

Georghes Cazan, Romania

Borut Smrdel, President, National Review Commission for Reviewing Public Procurement Procedures, Slovenia

Country presentations (in alphabetical order)

Albania (Albanian)

Bosnia & Herzegovina (Bosnian-Serbian-Croatian)

Kosovo (Albanian)

The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (Macedonian)

Montenegro (Bosnian-Serbian-Croatian)

Serbia (Bosnian-Serbian-Croatian)

Turkey