In his keynote address, President of the Commission for Protection of Competition Dr. Miloje Obradović addressed the audience of the First Public Procurement Forum, dedicated to enhancing the professionalization and competition in public procurements.
Commenting on the Commission’s competences in public procurements, President Obradović reminded that pursuant to the Law on Protection of Competition, bid rigging in public procurements are among the most severe competition infringements.

Detected rigged bids in public procurements are sanctioned in accordance with the Law, in the form of an obligation to pay a monetary sum in the amount up to 10 percent of the total revenue generated during the preceding year, but also with a suspension from participating in public tenders for a certain period of time, similar to the EU practice as well, Dr. Obradović recapped.

The President added that the Commission remains committed to detecting bid rigging cases on a continuous basis. Dedicated spending of funds through public procurements is the goal of all responsible institutions that in various manners deal with the enhancement of the public procurement system in Serbia. In that regard, activities taken to prevent abuses in public procurements and to ensure an effective competitive environment are among the top operational priorities of the Commission, Dr. Obradović concluded.
Keeping up to date with global trends, and owing to the cooperation established with the British Competition and Markets Authority, the Commission has just recently begun to also use a digital program that assists in detecting possible rigged bids or collusion of bidders in public procurements, said President Obradović.

The program enables the Commission’s employees that by entering various parameters, such as prices, terms and conditions of public procurements or individual segments of bids, investigate a greater number of public procurements in a faster and more efficient manner.

The event is organized by the Public Procurement Office and GIZ, as part of the EU funded project for enhancing the public procurement system in Serbia, implemented in cooperation with UNDP, Sigma and the Kingdom of Sweden, and which was attended by a great number of representatives of international and national institutions, stakeholders and the economy.