As of January 1 of this year, all public tender offers in large values are accepted electronically and not physically, as it has been until now.
Started many years ago, electronic procurement in Kosovo has not yet managed to be finalized as a whole, since the possibility of submitting the offer for some public tenders in small and medium amounts still has the option of submission in physical form.
But, according to the Public Procurement Regulatory Commission (KRPP), until the end of this year all offers will be submitted only electronically.
Public procurement in local and international reports was considered a source of corruption in Kosovo. Such an assessment was repeatedly given in the progress reports for Kosovo of the European Commission.
Sami Uka, member of the KRPP Board, told Radio Free Europe that from January 2019 all procedures that can technically be developed through the platform will be electronic.
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"Electronic procurement in Kosovo is used almost 100 percent, there are only procedures with small and medium values where economic operators have the option of submitting the offer through physical form as well. But, this will only be until the end of this year. So this is the only part left without being operationalized in electronic procurement", says Uka.
The submission of offers in electronic form by economic operators for public tenders in percentage continues to remain low, but has increased from year to year.
Uka indicates that while in May 2017 the submission of offers in electronic form was only 10 percent, this has now increased to over 35 percent.
"Electronic procurement has increased transparency, but also effectiveness and savings in the use of public money. We have had several confirmations from several economic operators who have declared that over 1000 euros monthly expenses have been reduced due to the possibility that all actions can be carried out electronically", said Uka.
Corruption in the field of public procurement is considered to have major consequences in the undermining of economic investments, in poor local services, in access and efficient health care, as well as in the quality of education.
Isuf Zejna from the Democracy Plus organization tells Radio Europe that even a single offer if submitted in physical form cannot be said to have a full guarantee that everything is going well in the bid evaluation process.
"Until we have 100 percent mandatory submission of offers electronically, we cannot assess the effects of this platform in mitigating corruption. However, in principle, electronic procurement guarantees us a greater transparency of this process and is a guarantee that the papers cannot be changed after they have been submitted. But, as long as we have physical offers, the papers can be changed and in this way the fate of tenders with different values is decided", he says.
According to the evaluations made by the economic organizations in Kosovo, it was emphasized that most of the businesses have had numerous complaints about the irregularities that occur during the public tendering process.
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There are about 700 million euros per year in the budget of Kosovo, which are spent through public procurement.
The law on public procurement was approved in 2003 and until now this law has been amended more than five times.
