For more than a year, Croatia has been in hibernation. It began before the last elections, continued during the negotiations for forming the former government, and during the acclimatization of that government, which quickly became technical, up to today. For more than a year, only the cold operation has been functioning, which is particularly evident in the public procurement system. In the first nine months of this year, the value of public procurement amounted to only 19.8 billion kuna, excluding so-called minor procurements. By comparison, in the entire previous year, also an election year, public procurement totaled 40.5 billion kuna, of which tenders were worth 31.1 billion kuna, and minor procurement reached 9.4 billion kuna. And that is also less than the ‘normal’ 2014, when the total value of all contracts exceeded 42.1 billion kuna, 32.8 billion kuna in tenders, and 9.2 billion kuna in minor procurement. Due to the lack of tender announcements, the Croatian economy is losing more than 10 billion kuna this year alone. This is not the only problem. The existing Public Procurement Act, which is based on the lowest bid, is not in accordance with European guidelines, nor does it bring anything good to the economy.
In the new issue of Lider: The economy loses more than 10 billion kuna in public procurement due to lawlessness
Former Minister of Economy Tomislav Panenić presented a new, amended Public Procurement Act in March, which will favor the economically most advantageous offer instead of the lowest price. The proposal even passed the Government in June, but got stuck in the Croatian Parliament when the Government fell, and now it must go through the procedure again.
– The Public Procurement Act is ready, all subordinate regulations have been prepared, especially those relating to minor procurement, which should be more transparent in the future. In my handover report, I will emphasize all this to my successor, and I hope that this law, for which we received positive evaluations from the European Commission, will soon be accepted – Panenić said for Lider, who once hoped that this law would be implemented from June.
More on this topic can be read in the new issue of Lider.
