State Audit Institution: 47 Billion Spent in Suspicious Public Procurements

26.12.2012.

Source : Mondo

...The State Audit Institution (SAI) said today that having audited 122 subjects in 2011, it ascertained that violations of public procurement procedures were made concerning goods, services and works the value of which exceeds 47 billion dinars. The vast majority of violations were made in the sector of compulsory social insurance.

The SAI president Radoslav Sretenović told the parliamentary Financial Committee that the contracts that were awarded without previously conducting public procurement procedure constituted 84.65 percent of all violations.

Presenting the SAI report, Sretenović said that when public procurement of goods, services and works is concerned, the negotiated procedure without publishing a contract notice for public procurements constituted 1.7 percent of all violations, as well as that in 3.7 percent of the cases, goods, services and works were procured disregarding the annual plan of procurements.

He said that the value of public procurements acquired without prior publicizing of the contract notice in the Official Gazette and on the public procurement online platform equaled 1.7 billion dinars last year, which makes 3.8 percent of all violations of the Public Procurement Law.

Sretenović also said that violations of public procurement procedures identified by the department for auditing compulsory social insurance organizations exceeded the value of 33.9 billion dinars and those identified by the department for auditing state enterprises, business organizations and other legal persons set up by public fund beneficiaries or in which public fund beneficiaries holds a share of the capital, amounted to 8.8 billion dinars.

For the State Auditor, business operations of Srbijagas constitute a special case. The state audit institution report on business operation of this public enterprise has not yet been finished because ’a complex system of auditing’ was required as well as because ’there was obstruction by those who were in charge of submitting documentation.’

Sretenović added that when auditing of Srbijagas is concerned, things did not go smoothly, saying that there were two systems operating in Srbijagas when accounting is concerned, namely one in Novi Sad and one in Pančevo and that he could not reveal the exact data because the law ’did not allow him to do so.’

To meet the needs of Serbia, state enterprise Srbijagas imports gas via two independent companies, Jugorasgas and Erstegas. The gas is transported through Ukraine and Hungary.