During its last session on October 26, 2023, the National Assembly adopted amendments to the Public Procurement Act. The most significant changes relate to: introducing quality rather than price as a key criterion for selecting certain services/goods, introducing principles of environmental protection in the awarding of public procurement and specifying the initiation of misdemeanor proceedings in case of illegal spending of public procurement funds. The amendments will be applicable from January 1, 2024. At the outset, it is worth mentioning that the amendments introduce the principle of environmental protection. When considering the procurement of goods, services, or works, the contracting […]
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The Serbian Competition Authority (‘’SCA’’) revealed yesterday the long-awaited new Guidelines on bid-rigging (‘’Guidelines’’). The Guidelines provide essential instructions on how to detect rigged bids in public procurement procedures. They come 11 years after they were last updated, reflecting the latest amendments to the Public Procurement Act and the Criminal Code. This news is crucial as the new Guidelines aim to prevent and hinder bid-rigging, an illegal practice where bidders collude to decide the winner, resulting in a higher price than may have been achieved in a truly competitive bidding process. As prices are driven up in public procurement processes, […]
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The New Public Procurement Act (“new Act”) was adopted in December 2019 and came into force on January 1, 2020. The key objectives of the new act are increased transparency within the public procurement procedure, elimination of the administrative burden and increased competition between the participants in the procedure. If conducted legally, the public procurement process should result in the acquisition of the highest possible quality of goods or services for the lowest possible price. However, collusion between bidders, i.e. “bid-rigging”, eliminates genuine competition and hinders the interests of both purchasers and taxpayers. Bids can be rigged through secret coordination […]
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