MILLIONS of euros saved annually, reduced corruption and more transparent public procurement are the main benefits the electronic marketplace is expected to bring. The state e-Bay was launched on September 16, while the first deals may be clinched over the final week of September.
“The launch of the electronic marketplace is an unprecedented step in fighting corruption in public procurement,” said Tatiana Behrová, the Interior Ministry’s advisor for public procurement, as quoted by the TASR newswire. “Trading in live broadcast online absolutely decreases the possibility of manipulating deals, or negotiating them in advance, as all information concerning the due deal is available to the wider public online.”
The state, municipalities, regional administrations, as well as the organisations managed by them will be obliged to make purchases through the electronic marketplace if the value of the goods, services or construction works exceeds €1,000 and amounts to €134,000 in the case of the state, or €207,000 in the case of other procurers. In construction, the limit is €5,186,000.
The electronic marketplace will be obligatory for about 3,000 state and public companies and offices as of the beginning of 2015. They will be able to use previous procurement methods only when they fail to find what they are looking for on the electronic market place.
The new system will shorten the public procurement process. While it currently takes about 43 days, now it will only take three.
Dishonest traders who fail to fulfil their offers will be placed on a “marketplace blacklist” if they violate a contract three times in at least two cases. This constitutes a reason for consumers to waive a contract without sanctions.
For now, 457 customers and 444 suppliers are registered in the electronic marketplace system. According to Behrová, this is enough to start the first transactions.
The electronic marketplace is the first tool of the Electronic Contractual System (EKS) project launched by the Interior Ministry (alongside the Dynamic Purchasing System and the Electronic Support for Processes) to improve the transparency and availability of public procurement. The supplier of EKS is a consortium of IT company Anasoft, telecom operator Slovak Telekom and the state newswire TASR.
