An amendment to the Public Procurements Act which its drafters say is intended to increase the transparency and fairness of certain public-procurement procedures was passed to its second reading in parliament On February 10.
The legislation, drawn up by Smer party MPs Robert Madej and Peter Pelegrini, strengthens the powers of the Public Procurement Office (UVO) when it comes to inspections into tenders for so-called non-priority services, the TASR newswire reported.
If the amendment is passed, state offices will be obliged to inform the ÚVO of their intention to publish calls for tenders at least two days in advance. The ÚVO would then provide information about the tenders on its website. The bill also proposes to reduce the maximum limit for awarding contracts without a tender for non-priority services from the current €6 million to €3 million.
According to the amendment, the ÚVO will begin inspecting tenders if a request is made by the procurer, the government or the Supreme Audit Office, or if the ÚVO itself decides to do so. Pelegrini and Madej noted that the ÚVO has not carried out any preventive inspections that were not initiated by an external body in the past three years. If the proposal is passed by parliament, it should come into force on July 1. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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