1. Public Procurement in Albania in the framework of recent reforms PUBLIC PROCUREMENT AGENCY 1

2. Priorities of reforms Regulatory framework; increasing of full transparency and consolidation of electronic services; strengthening of human capacities of contracting authorities with regard to the correct understanding and implementation of legislation. 2

3. Current Status Legal framework: Law no. 9643 of 20.11.2006 “On public procurement”, as amended; Council of Ministers Decision no. 1 of 10.1.2007 “On public procurement regulations”, as amended; Council of Ministers Decision No. 659, dated 03.10.2007 “On the approval of public procurement regulations with electronic means”; Council of Ministers Decision no. 45 of 21.1.2009 “On the performance of public procurement procedures with electronic means”. 3

4. Legal framework The Albanian legislation on public procurement includes the basic principles of acquis communautaire: non discrimination and equality of treatment for economic operators; transparency of procurement procedures; proportionality of requirements and obligations imposed to economic operators. 4

5. Recent important amendments to the legal framework on public procurement include: Introduction of a new review body, Public Procurement Commission; A specific chapter for public procurement in utilities sectors (water, energy, transport and postal services); Framework Agreements. 5

6. Public Procurement Commission A collegial review body, composed of 5 members; Under the dependence of the Council of Ministers; Dealing exclusively with the complaints of economic operators; Its decisions are administratively final; The possibility of their appeal to the Court. 6

7. Utilities sectors Specific provisions for the utilities sectors were added to the law on public procurement (9643/2006, as amended). These provisions determine the rules and the applicable procedures for procuring the public contracts in the sectors of water, energy, transport and postal services. The provisions of the law, which regulate public procurement in the utilities sectors, are compiled in compliance with the Directive 2004/17/EC “on coordinating the procurement procedures of entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services sectors”. 7

8. Framework Agreements Procedures for signing framework agreements are foreseen for the first time in the law on public procurement, and in compliance with respective EU law. Main advantage for using framework agreements: reduction of administrative costs and public finances. 8

9. Electronic procurement system (www.app.gov.al) A big reform towards improvement and evolution of public procurement system; The system of the e-procurements system was created with the assistance and support of the Millennium Challenge Albanian Threshold Agreement, administered by USAID. Since 2009, Albania is using 100% electronic procurement. (By Decision 45 of 21 January 2009, the Council of Ministers mandated the use of electronic procurement for all procedures) 9

10. E-procurement system The e-procurement system ensures: Security of system - Integrity - Confidentiality Protection of transmitted data The possibility to look into the content of offers and of requests for participation only after the deadline for their submission. 10

11. E-procurement system (cont’) The right of access in the system: Only authorized persons can set or change deadlines of offers and requests for participation’s disclosure; The access in tender offers and requests is possible only by authorized personnel, through synchronized actions; The system automatically generates a summary report, which includes all the phases of a tender procedure. 11

12. Advantages of e-procurement The e-procurement is mainly an important step towards full transparency and the fight against corruption. It, inter alia, provides: costs reduction; increasing number of bidders in electronic procedures; higher competition; increasing number of documents downloaded from the PPA website; avoidance of bureaucratic procedures; improvement of services’ delivery; closer cooperation among institutions; 12

13. Improvements in the e-Procurement System Drafting of new manuals for all users of the Electronic Procurement System and for each role that they have in the procurement process and Improvement of the Public Procurement Agency official website, which is enriched with updated information. Public Procurement Agency created the “CA Administrator” for each of the CA-s, which facilitates the management of the internal users accounts of the CA within the e-Procurement System. The members of the Complaints Review Commission and those of Auditing already can now electronically conduct the auditing of a specific procurement procedure. This leads to avoiding of problems, which were generated by the delays of hard copy communication. 13

14. Improvements in the e-Procurement System (cont’) Continuous improvement of the Information Technology infrastructure (ex: increasing of hardware capacities, improvement of security, etc) by providing good working conditions for all online users of the Electronic Procurement System. Detailed studies concerning the separation of the e-Procurement archive from the operational database and optimization of the latter. During 2010, the Information Technology Directorate started electronic archiving of procedures, which were conducted in 2008 and 2009. These procedures are saved in another “Archive” server in order to facilitate the operational database, to provide a higher quality service and to enhance the speed of finding the data and the efficiency of the electronic procedures in the public procurement system. 14

15. Second-place winner Public Procurement Agency was the second- place winner of the 2010 United Nations Public Services Award in the category of ‘Improving transparency, accountability and responsiveness in the Public Service”, because of the results achieved by the implementation of the e- procurement system. 15

16. External Support IPA Program 2008 twinning project “Support for the strengthening of the Albanian Public Procurement, Concessions and Public Auctions systems. Overall objective: to assist Albania in achieving EU standards as required under the SAA, in the areas of public procurement, concessions and public auctions. Duration: 15 months (November 2010 – January 2012) 16

17. IPA Twinning Project 3 components: Legal and institutional reform; Capacity building for the stakeholders dealing with public procurement; Communication regarding the public procurement field. 17

18. External Support (cont’) PPA is also currently being assisted by the EBRD project on “Utilities public procurement reform”. Objective of the project: to provide assistance with the development and implementation of the utilities sector public procurement policy, by drafting secondary or tertiary legislation and supporting practical implementation of this legal framework; preparation of tertiary legislation on implementing Framework Agreements, and capacity building assistance on this regard; Assistance on improvements of e-procurement system Duration of this project: 6 months 18

19. Main challenges and priorities in progress Well-implementation of public procurement legislation, especially with regard to the newly regulated utilities sectors. Taking steps in order to bring the PPL fully up to EU standards. Continuous strengthening of institutional capacities (central and local government), dealing with public procurement. Wider awareness and knowledge on public procurement among contracting authorities, economic operators and the wider public. Further enhancement of the e-procurement system. 19

20. THANK YOU! https://www.app.gov.al 20