23.02.2017.

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Wasteful procurement: Threat to Serbia’s Security

Incompatibility of public procurements with the real needs of employees, poor enforcement of procedures and lack of staff are the main causes of wasteful procurements in the security sector, are conclusions of the conference “Financing security for  XXI Century” organized by the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP) on 21st ...

Incompatibility of public procurements with the real needs of employees, poor enforcement of procedures and lack of staff are the main causes of wasteful procurements in the security sector, are conclusions of the conference “Financing security for  XXI Century” organized by the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP) on 21st of  February 2017 in Belgrade.

The first task under Chapter 5 of the negotiations with the European Union is harmonization with the EU acquis, and also the adoption of new law on public procurement by the end of the year, it was highlighted at the meeting.

“However, the legal standardization of public procurement is not enough to prevent corruption and wasteful spending, it is essential that the regulations are applied in practice”, said Daliborka Sreckov, Head of the Department for Regulation and Professionalization, Public Procurement Office of Serbia.

The positive trend in the field of public procurement is improved transparency, and negative is reduction of competition in procurement procedures, it was said during this discussion.

“An additional problem in procurements is that the institutions often do not have enough officers for public procurement, so the priority is just to conclude the contract. As the weakest link in the public procurement process remains the execution of the contract, and there is often no sufficient control”, said Sreckov.

In order to allow effective planning the Ministry of Interior should precisely define quality standards of police uniforms, as well as the approximate time range for their renewal, explained Mile Lazarevic, Deputy Chairman of the Serbian Police Union.

“Police officers are often confronted with problems at work due to poorly conducted procurements. Torn uniforms, defective equipment and vehicles without winter tires directly threaten the safety of employees”, warned Lazarevic.

Ministry of Interior of Serbia (MoI) should adopt a technical specification in accordance with their needs, rather than adapting to market demands, emphasized Zoran Basic from the Society against corruption in front of PRO-CURE Group.

“It is necessary for MoI to have standard practices regarding what kind of equipment is purchased, on which it would prepare technical specifications. A good example of that may be the reputation of the Ministry of Defence, which has elaborate standard practices”, said Basic and presented lessons learned from harmful procurement of combat boots.

This panel was part of the conference “Financing Security for XXI Century”, which consisted of interview conducted by BCSP researcher Katarina Djokic with Minister of Defence of Serbia Zoran Djordjevic within the framework of panel “Smart Defence: How to attain more with less”, as well as the discussion involving representatives of Commission for Public-private partnerships in security sector, Vojvodjanska banka, The Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces  (DCAF) and BCSP in a panel “Towards Proffessional Private Security Sector“.

The event was realised within the project “PRO-CURE: Strengthening Civil Scrutiny of Public Procurement in the Security Sector”, conducted by BCSP and the Society Against Corruption with financial support from the Delegation of the European Union in the Republic of Serbia and the Office for Cooperation with Civil Society of  Republic of Serbia. The organization of the conference is supported by the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF).

Article translated by BCSP Intern Sanja Budimovic

Tags: ..., conducted, conference, control, corruption, defence, panel, police, procurement, procurements, public, sector, security, serbia, serbia’s, society, threat, union, wasteful

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