<p>Skopje,  18 October - Participants at a conference on public procurement, which  was held Thursday in Skopje in organization of the Center for Civil  Communications, jointly concluded that there is a need and a room for  amendments to the legislation on public procurement in the country in  order to reduce the abuse in the spending of public money.<br /><br /> Basis for discussion were <a href="../images/stories/6-ang-kvartalen-izvestaj-02.pdf" target="_blank" title="6-ang-kvartalen-izvestaj-02.pdf">the findings of the monitoring of public procurement in Macedonia (.pdf)</a> where the main weaknesses were detected in the process of procurement,  such as reducing the interest of companies to participate in tenders,  frequent cancellation of procedures, use of disputed items in selecting  the winning bid, favoritism by defining the tender documents, etc..<br /><br /> The President of GRECO (Group of states against corruption within the  Council of Europe), Drago Kos shared the Slovenian experience in this  area and offered several measures to reduce corruption in the public  procurement undertaken in other EU countries, including the insertion  of an anti-corruption clause in any contract for procurement of more  than 10,000 euros and an obligation for assets declaration for all  persons in contracting authorities involved in public procurement.</p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: trebuchet ms,geneva;">Some participants called for the prediction of punitive provisions in the Law on Public Procurement. <br /><br /> The Director of the Bureau for Public Procurement, Mare Bogeva Micovska  presented the efforts of the institution to enhance the public  procurement system and the planned introduction of a special module on  prevention of corruption in the trainings conducted by the Bureau.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: trebuchet ms,geneva;">More  than 60 participants attended the conference, among which  representatives of all stakeholders in the public procurement, as well  as domestic and foreign experts, and representatives of domestic and  foreign institutions and organizations.</span></p>
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