<p>SKOPJE, 29 April 2015 – Today, the Centre for Civil Communications published the monitoring results for public procurement procedures in Macedonia for the period July-December 2014. Key findings related to <strong>monitoring of public procurements </strong>include:</p>
<ul>
<li>In the first months of its operation, the Council of Public Procurements increased the administrative burden in implementation of tender procedures, but not the competition therein. The number of bidding companies per tender procedure in the second half of 2014 is reduced, even when compared to the first half of the year. </li>
<li>In the second half of 2014, the Council of Public Procurements was addressed with as many as 5,725 applications for approval concerning implementation of tender procedures. State institutions incurred a cost of around 600,000 EUR for requesting such approvals. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>All tender procedures from the monitoring sample      applied the selection criterion defined as “lowest prices”. Low prices, which      during some e-auctions result in absurdly low levels, bring under question      the quality of public procurements. </li>
<li>Mandatory      approval from the Council of Public Procurements for organization of      negotiation procedures without prior announcement of call for bids has      reduced the number of these non-transparent procurement procedures. Annual      amount of procurement contracts awarded in this manner reached 56 million      EUR.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Contracting authorities joined the appeal process in the field of      public procurements. 109 from the total of 612 appeals lodged to the State      Commission on Public Procurement Appeals in the course of 2014 were      motioned by institutions implementing tender procedures and contest      decisions taken by the Council of Public Procurements. With only 503      appeals lodged by companies in the course of 2014, the multiannual trend      on reduced number of appeals motioned by companies in front of the State      Commission is continuing. </li>
</ul>
<p>This Report is available <a href="images/stories/24e.pdf" target="_blank">here.</a> For more information, please contact the Centre for Civil Communications on tel. (02) 3213-513 or by e-mail: <a href="mailto:center@ccc.org.mk">center@ccc.org.mk</a>.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 1.3em;">USAID Civil Society Project is implemented by the Foundation Open Society – Macedonia (FOSM) in partnership with the Centre for Civil Communications, the Youth Educational Forum, Reactor – Research in Action, and Forum – Centre for Strategic Research and Documentation.</span></p>
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<p><strong>NOTE TO THE EDITORS:</strong></p>
<p>The American people, through USAID, have invested over $500 million in Macedonia since 1993. USAID works with the people of Macedonia to create jobs, strengthen democratic institutions and practices, enhance integrated education, and prepare students for the workforce. These initiatives improve the quality of life and support Macedonia’s transition to a stable and prosperous democracy. USAID provides economic and humanitarian assistance in more than 100 countries. For more information please visit <a href="http://www.usaid.gov/where-we-work/europe-and-eurasia/macedonia" target="_blank">USAID Macedonia Website</a> and <a href="http://www.facebook.com/USAIDMacedonia" target="_blank">USAID Macedonia Facebook</a><span style="text-decoration: underline;"> </span>page.</p>