Procurement phases in the process of procurement in Kosovo

• Author: Drita Kaçandolli-Gjonbalaj; Myrvete Badivuku-Pantina
• Pages: 326-334

Drita Kaçandolli-Gjonbalaj.Privatization Agency of Kosova, Prishtina, Kosova (e-mail: dritakgj@hotmail.com).

Myrvete Badivuku-Pantina. Associated Professor, Ph.D., Faculty of Economics, University of Prishtina, Prishtina, Kosova (e-mail: myrvetebadivuku@yahoo.com).

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1. Introduction Formal procedures of tendering and Procurement Procedures

Procedure whereof Government¹ solicits offers, create condition and terms, as well as selects contractors is the essence of procurement process.

Planning procurement from the very first step on is very important². So, the compilation of a procurement plan constitutes an essential issue of the procurement process and it has the purposePage 327 of stimulating competition and allowing the purchase of products with the more convenient prices. The procurement process starts with the procurement plan for various purchases (goods, works and services); it also starts with the provision of funds for procurement, which needs to be approved from persons duly authorized by the Law on Procurement and Finance. The Procurement Plan should describe certain projects, which have to be determined from Units or Departments, as a part of a Contracting Authority.

Units acts as an office guide for compilation of a procurement plan as much as exact of tendering.

Preparation of procurement year plan comprises the following activities:

■ Describing quantity, quality and time for purchasing of supplies, services and works;

■ Conducting a market research, in order to provide information for existing products and for actual suppliers able to provide these products;

■ Defining the Procurement Method to be used;

■ Managing the Procurement Process and the publication;

■ Setting up the type of procedures;

■ Setting up the type of procurement for supplies, services and works. Preparing a good Procurement plan is very difficult. It is always important to consult experts in different field, who have experience in planning processes of contracts and request units which are beneficiary certain procurements.

2. Procurement phases

Publication of Contract Notice

The publication of the contract notice is considered an essential component of each regime of public procurement³. The aim of advertising or publishing a contract is to announce certain tender to Economic Operators, in order to create a proper competition. The Procurement Law anticipates certain regulations of contract notice. In Kosovo publication of contract notice it is regulated by the Public Procurement Law for contracts having a value equal or over 10.000 Euro.

Contract Notice can be loosed as the standard form as follows:

■ Designation and subject of tender;

■ Name and address of the Contracting Authority;

■ Type of procedure;

■ Deadline for submitting a tender;

■ Main qualifications, professional, technical, economic and financial criteria;

■ Awarding criterion (lowest-priced or most economically advantageous offer),

■ Information regarding the delivery of goods, services or works,

■ Notice of pre-bid conference, if necessary,

■ Determinate price for the requirement of tender dossier, being the case,

■ Contract value,

■ Languages to be used for submission of the offer,

■ Possibilities to ask for clarifications,

■ Deadline within which tender dossier can be required,

■ Common Procurement Vocabulary

Classic procedures for awarding contracts

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Different methods of awarding public procurement contracts derive from the theory and practice of many countries. Local and International newspapers and advertising through electronic web pages. This procedure is realized through certain terms of tendering. Applying of these includes:

Open procedure. Open procedure is considered as the most transparent procedure for public procurement⁴, since it gives a possibility to present offers to all tenderers, on equal basis. Contracting Authorities will use an open procedure for awarding a public contract as much as possible and they will to use other procedures only where necessary. The use of other procedures is feasible only when the conditions to make use of the open procedure are not fulfilled. The meaning of the open procedure stays in the possibility, given to all potential candidates, to submit a tender.

Fundamental Principles of the open procedure are: transparency, equal treatment, competition, non-discrimination. These principles are used at all procedure steps. For example, when preparing the tendering procedure, at the moment of publication of the contract notices, at the evaluation of tenders, etc.

Open procedure can be realized through publication of the contract notice at the local procedure, can come to the one tender which can be chosen based on evaluating of tendereres as per Kosovo actual procurement Law states: ’Contract is awarded to eligible, qualified who has submitted responsible tender with appropriate/low price and other conditions presented before from CA at the tender dossier’.

The Contract shall be awarded to the Bidder whose tender has been determined by the Evaluation Committee to be substantially responsive to the bidding documents as required from Contracting Authorities and who has offered the lowest evaluated Bid Price⁵.

Open procedure do not create limitation at tenderers but contrariwise create a maximum of competition among tenderers. By using this form of procedure chances are very small to come across collusion, misuse or material benefit got by procurement officers or at any other level of management of Contracting Authorities.

Restricted procedure. Another method of procurement is the restricted procedure. GPA Article VII (3) / defines this procedure as a ‘selective tendering procedures’, since only qualified suppliers can be invited to submit a tender⁶. Best practices of procurement enabled usage of this procedure, so the Public Procurement Law permits and foresees particular regulations for using it in very special cases. In these cases the contract can be awarded only to Economic Operators that have determined technical, professional and economical capabilities. The main characteristic of this method if compared to open procedure is that it can be made in two phases: the first part relates to the pre-qualification phase, while the second part relates to the real tendering phase.

In the first Phase unfortunate candidates shall be rejected and the only qualified tenderers can be selected. Minimal requirements for qualification of candidates are:

(i) Eligible requirements

(ii) Professional suitability requirements

(iii) Economical financial standing

(iv) Technical and/or professional capabilities In the second phase all qualified candidates are invited to submit their tenders; previously tender dossier containing technical specifications and conditions of contract has been prepared. This procedure is not such as restricted due to all interested candidates enables to submit requirements for participation. However, restriction of the method can...