Public procurement and good governance for greater competitiveness
Donor: Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA)
Partners/target groups: Office for Public Procurement, Republic Commission for the Protection of Rights in Public Procurement Procedures, Judicial Academy, Judges and Prosecutors, Ministry of Environmental Protection, "Bidders of Serbia" Association, Ministry of State Administration and Local Self-Government, Office for IT and e-Government, Ministry of Finance , Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs, Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, civil society organizations, media and others.
Period of realization: December 2022 – May 2024
"Public procurement and good governance for greater competitiveness" is a one-and-a-half-year project, implemented by NALED with the support of the Swedish Agency for International Development and Cooperation (Sida), and its value is 1.5 million euros.
The project primarily deals with public procurement and partly relies on the results achieved in the project "Effective public procurement in the service of economic growth", which NALED implemented during 2021 and 2022. Public procurement should be used as a tool to achieve public policy goals in areas such as environmental protection and social inclusion, while serving the growth of competitiveness and small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector. The project will work on strengthening the capacity of contracting authorities for the application of specific procedures and tools in public procurement procedures, such as: dynamic procurement system and electronic auctions, energy performance contracts, innovation partnerships. At the same time, attention will be devoted to strengthening the capacity of bidders at the sectoral level, through the organization of training and workshops, so that all current and potential bidders from Serbia have the opportunity to attend trainings. The creation of a guide for application of green and social criteria in public procurement procedures is planned, alongside traning for clients and bidders, as well as the provision of mentoring support to clients to best apply these criteria. Since the trust of citizens in the public procurement system and the competent institutions that supervise the application of regulations and the implementation of procedures in this area is extremely important, this project will intensively deal with the level of awareness about the importance of public procurement through a special focus on improving dialogue with civil society and the media, because the subject is very sensitive to general irregularities and irregularities due to the volume of total spending. On the other hand, the Project will provide support to key actors in the field of public procurement in the Republic of Serbia through the strengthening of their capacities and the development of digital solutions to create greater transparency of the entire system.
In the field of e-Government, the Project will deal with the opening of new e-Counters and the expansion of the range of services that will be available to citizens and the economy, because one of the ways for the administration to become more efficient is trough digitalization, which the Government of the Republic of Serbia recognized as a strategic goal back in 2017. In order for that process to be successful, it is necessary to increase the availability of electronic services to citizens and businesses, because businesses are obliged to open an account on the e-Government portal. NALED successfully implemented the e-Citizen project, during which more than 130 e-Counters were opened in municipalities throughout Serbia. The project envisaged the organization of trainings for civil servants, so that they would be ready to welcome the opening of new e-Counters and be at the service of citizens, as well as a campaign aimed at raising awareness of the importance of e-Counters for citizens and the economy. One of the biggest advantages of digitization is that citizens and the economy can use administration services faster and easier, because the existence of the e-Counter accelerates the process of providing services and reduces administrative costs. NALED has successful cooperation with the Government, the Office for IT and e-Government, local self-governments and the economy, which enables a joint approach to the digitalization process of e-Government, at everyones benefit.
The project envisaged an additional contribution to the establishment of good governance through a more efficient resolution of property issues. Unsolved property problems slow down the economy in many ways and prevent economic growth and the improvement the economic climate. Also, unresolved property issues can be a problem for the successful implementation of public procurement procedures. To that end, the Project envisioned several activities to further encourage reform in this area, from creating a challenge analysis and preparing legislative changes to a functional specification for software that will facilitate the management of public assets.
The goal of this project is to continue strengthening the public-private dialogue through sincere partnership between the public, private and civil sectors and joint work on the development of new and improved solutions. NALED has experience in this field, as it has founded several program-oriented platforms, i.e. the Alliances, as one of the mechanisms for public-private dialogue, where all three sectors participate. In this regard, the Project envisaged providing support in the work of three Alliances: the Enivroment Protection Alliance, the e-Government Alliance and the Property and Investments Alliance. On the other hand, NALED created a unique monitoring tool that analysis the quality of the regulatory environment in Serbia, the Regulatory Index of Serbia (RIS). The project envisages a revision of the methodology, and then the preparation of a report for the year 2022/2023, which is of great importance for the economy and the entire public.
Goals and activites
Contribution to the improvement of competitiveness through better administration and more effective public procurement.
- Increasing competitiveness and improving the quality of procured goods and services (value for money in public procurement),
- Improving the business environment through the growth of the SME sector, but also transparency, efficiency and quality of administration services,
- Improving the quality of dialogue and the capacity of relevant key actors to meaningfully participate in inclusive dialogue.
Project structure
- More effective public procurement through the creation of preconditions for the implementation of specific procurement procedures, improvement of the capacity of clients and bidders in relevant sectors, greater use of green and social criteria and growth of trust in the public procurement system through better implementation and monitoring;
- Improved administration - transparency, efficiency and quality of policy creation and implementation through improvement of e-Government execution and digital solutions through wider and more efficient use of e-Counter, as well as setting the basis for more transparent and efficient solutions to property issues;
- Support for partnership and the involvement of key actors in the implementation through the strengthening of public-private dialogue mechanisms (Alliances), as well as the introduction of the Regulatory Index of Serbia as a monitoring tool and increased visibility.
