Last year, more than 165 million euros were spent on public procurement for the needs of the health system, which is more than a fifth of the total amount allocated from the budget for the procurement of goods, works and services.
This results from the report "Public Procurement in Montenegrin Healthcare, 2023", which was prepared by the Union of Doctors of Medicine (SDM).
According to the report, "Montefarm", which supplies public health institutions with drugs and medical equipment, contracted for about 122,4 million euros, which is 18,12 percent of the total amount of public procurement in the country.
"A year earlier, Montefarm contracted 79.269.391,13 euros, which is 15,63 percent of the total public procurements, while public procurements for the entire healthcare amounted to 108.686.744 euros. In just one year, public procurement in healthcare increased by about 52 percent and that growth trend continued in 2024," it is stated.
The report states that, according to the Directorate for Public Investment Management and Public Procurement Policy of the Ministry of Finance, 161.357.000 euros, or 29 percent of the total amount for public procurement, was spent during the first six months through public procurement procedures.
Respondents complain about short deadlines and favoritism
For the purposes of the SDM research, a questionnaire was created and sent to 21 e-mail addresses of registered legal entities for the wholesale trade of medicines, to which nine respondents answered. Some of the respondents' objections related to the absence of a detailed explanation as to why the subject of the public procurement was not divided into lots, but various products were unjustifiably combined, which ultimately prevents competition among bidders. The respondents note that in the negotiation procedures without prior publication of the call for tenders, in which the subject of procurement is divided into a large number of lots (several hundred), very short deadlines are left for the preparation of the offer, only three to four working days.
"An important objection refers to the Law on Public Procurement itself, i.e. to Article 118, paragraph 1, point 3, which defines the sub-criterion for scoring the offer - the delivery deadline. Respondents believe that the scoring of delivery deadlines is a frequent source of corruption, but also of discrimination against bidders, as well as that it is often misused in the process of public procurement. Namely, the respondents point out that 'favored bidders give unrealistically short terms of one day or even one hour and on that basis gain an advantage (even though they have significantly higher prices) compared to bidders who offer realistic delivery terms'. Also, it was pointed out that it happens that the tender documentation favors one bidder, and a case of favoring one of the existing two devices from the field of laboratory diagnostics was described," the SDM report states.
Increasing the share of simple purchases
The report clarifies that during 2023, at the state level, the largest number of procedures, 88,22 percent, was carried out through an open procedure, as the most transparent.
4,35 percent of the procedures carried out through the negotiation procedure without prior publication of the call for tenders, 0,53 percent of the limited procedure and 6,9 percent of the simple procurements that were carried out through the system.
"Through simple procurements in 2023, 105.508.184,65 euros were spent, that is, 15,63 percent of the total contracted public procurements. In a transparent manner, by publishing Requests for submitted offers on the electronic public procurement system (all procurements equal to or greater than 8.000 euros) in 2023, 40.898.643,64 euros were realized. Direct selection of the procurement item of a certain bidder with the acceptance of the estimate/pro-invoice, fiscal invoice or contract spent 64.609.541,01 euros, which is 9,57 percent of the total contracted public procurements," the report says.
The SDM received information from "Montefarm" that in 2023, 27 open procedures for the procurement of medicines and medical devices were carried out in that institution, on the basis of which a total of 100 contracts were concluded, the estimated value of which was 93.114.340,64 euros, and the contracted value was 102.011.498,78 .7.865.275 euros. Through an open procedure, nine contracts for the purchase of goods with a total value of 25 euros were concluded with the only bidder, and 110 contracts worth 15.412.563,60 euros were concluded for XNUMX negotiation procedures without prior publication of the call for tenders.
In the report, it is written that for simple procurements with an individual value below 8.000 euros, a total of about five million euros was contracted, which is an increase of 114 percent compared to 2022.
It is recommended to establish a registry of bidders
The SDM recommended the prescription of penal provisions for violation of the law in the part of simple procurements, which would expand the powers of the public procurement inspection and prescribe longer deadlines, not shorter than ten days, in negotiation procedures without prior publication of invitations to tender.
"In the composition of the commission for the implementation of the public procurement procedure, prescribe the mandatory participation of at least one expert engaged in work from the field for which the public procurement has been announced. To prescribe the standards of specifications for public procurement in the field of healthcare with the minimum required quality in order to simplify the preparation of tender specifications and reduce the number of complaints", the report says.
It was recommended to further strengthen the personnel capacities of the Commission for the Protection of Rights in Public Procurement Procedures in order to complete the appeal procedures within the deadlines prescribed by law.
SDM also claims that the delivery deadline should be excluded from the scoring criteria and specific delivery deadlines should be standardized depending on the subject of public procurement, except for urgent ones. Among other things, they recommended the establishment of a single register of bidders in which data on business operations, work permits, licenses and other types of certificates that are attached as evidence in the public procurement process will be stored. The register would also contain evaluations of the contracting parties in previous public procurement procedures, evaluations concerning the quality of work execution or purchased equipment/products, compliance with agreed work execution or delivery deadlines, warranty periods, equipment service.
It is also recommended to prescribe restrictions regarding answering the calls of companies that are on the black list of taxpayers.
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