Focus

The legally provisioned e-auction is bypassed

Date: May 14, 2013

Macedonia

 

19.04.2013.

Author : Center for Civil Communications

 

E-auction was held in 61% instead of 100% of the tenders. The e-auction, as the last stage of the procurement procedures is mandatory for all tenders in Macedonia, i.е. for every purchase over 500 Euros.

The number of procedures in which the legally provisioned e-auction was not held (negative bidding of the prices by electronic way) is constantly high. The Center for Civil Communications’ monitoring of the public procurements shows that e-auction was not held in 39% of the monitored tenders (160) even though it was planned.

The most frequent reason for not holding an e-auction is lack of sufficient number of bidders (none or only one acceptable bid/offer). A bid/offer is acceptable when the bidder meets the criteria for participation in the tender (criteria for personal, professional, economic-financial, and technical-professional capability). 

The Center of Civil Communications recommends that there is a need for investing additional efforts from the state institutions to stimulate competition, once the e-auction has been introduced as mandatory for all tenders, which makes Macedonia the only country in Europe with this concept of public procurement.