Competition in public procurement procedures in Serbia below European level

In Serbia, the competition in public procurement procedures is below the European level, because, in the past three years, on average, two and a half bids per public procurement procedure are made, which is fewer than more than three per procedure in Europe, says the analysis of the “Balkan Tender Watch” coalition for 2024, as reported by Nova Ekonomija.

As estimated, it is worrying that more than a half of all public procurement procedures in the country end with one bid and that the competition in public procurement procedures “is at such a low level that it is practically non-existent.”

Other problems in the system of public procurement procedures in Serbia are “exceptions” from the application of the Law on Public Procurement, the existence of special laws suspending application of the Law on Public Procurement in cases of big infrastructure projects and lack of adequate control in the stage on contract performance, as well as a low level of competition.

– Considering the essence of public procurement, the best price-quality ratio, it is entirely clear that it can only be achieved through the participation of as many business entities as possible in the procedures of procurement of goods, services and works – the analysis says.

In Serbia, in 2021, in 51% of the procedures, one bid was submitted, and in 2022, one bid was submitted in 51.62% of the procedures, whereas in 2023, in 51.6% of the procedures, there was only one bid.

One reason could be seen in low level of trust in the public procurement system among bidding companies due to suspicions that contracting authorities tend to rig tenders or favor certain companies.

According to the analysis, another prominent form of tender ringing in the recent years is market sharing, and other forms of tender rigging include fictitious bids, rotating bids or abstention from submitting bids.

Ministarstvo zdravlja Republike Srbije

Klinički centar Srbije Beograd

Balkan Tender Watch

public procurement procedures

Law on Public Procurement

competition in public procurement procedures

tender rigging