Interior Ministry: Savings from e-marketplace already exceed expenditures

THE decision to pursue the electronic marketplace project has proved to be the right one, Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák said at a press conference on May 5, the TASR newswire reported.

Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák (Source: ČTK)

The electronic marketplace, which is part of the electronic contracting system, is first and foremost aimed at combating corruption. The state, regional governments, municipalities and any organisations run by or associated with the aforementioned in terms of property are obliged to procure services and goods via the marketplace when their value is between €1,000-€134,000 in the case of state commissions or up to €207,000 in the case of other authorities. The upper limit for construction work is €5.19 million.

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Kaliňák specified that after three months of the system in operation the overall savings have topped €4.7 million, significantly exceeding the expenditures on running the project - €3.5 million.

“We can certainly consider this to be the biggest anti-corruption measure that has ever been adopted by any government that has been in power [in Slovakia],” said Kaliňák, as quoted by TASR.

He added that the strong points of the system lie in the fact that it is completely anonymous. This means that neither those who buy, nor those who sell their goods or services on the e-marketplace are aware of their identity up to the completion of an auction.

More than 4,000 transactions with an overall volume of €17.4 million have been completed over the three months. The estimated total for the transactions was €22.2 million, which means that the state saved over 21 percent on average. The minister further stated that the system has good potential, which is indicated by the figures seen in April, when transactions worth €9 million were carried out, saving the state nearly €2.4 million, according to him. 

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“We’ve been constantly trying to improve the system. We’ve managed to eliminate initial ‘childhood illnesses’, but we’re about to stand the test of puberty,” said Kaliňák, as quoted by TASR, claiming that the ministry is ready to take any comments and objections from suppliers and buyers into consideration.

The electronic contracting system was provided by a consortium of Anasoft, Slovak Telekom and the News Agency of the Slovak Republic (TASR).

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