Review article
Legal protection of public procurement
Nikola Tupanceski
; Iustinianus Primus Faculty of law, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje, Macedonia
Dragana Kiprijanovska
; Iustinianus Primus Faculty of law, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje, Macedonia
Abstract
Public procurement represents a key instrument in creating a market economy. By performing public procurement the state directly participates on the market and its behaviour influences the whole economic flows. Actually, through public procurement the state should clearly show that it respects the basic principles of market economy, and performs well the justified function of the guarantor of undisturbed functioning of free and fair competition. In order to regulate the process of using public assets by a certain public institution, in order to gain access to external resources and also taking into consideration its commitment to full membership of the European Union, the Republic of Macedonia has adopted a modern Public Procurement Act, which entered into force on 1 January 2008, and which is almost entirely aligned with the relevant European legislation and regulations which directly regulate this area. However, in spite of that, the adopted legislation framework has not led to overcoming of; but on the contrary, it has continued to produce numerous inconsistencies in the sphere of public procurement and in the successful application of the system. The authors of this paper give an overall view of the data related to the implementation of the Public Procurement Act gained from the monitoring of the public procurement process in the Republic of Macedonia as presented in the Second quarterly report from June 2009, which stresses the so-called declarative efforts in the prevention of abuse in the field of public procurement. However, this has not led to the expected results, having in mind the fact that there are still numerous inconsistencies on the institutional level which make it impossible to successfully implement the legal solutions. Notably, the emphasis is placed on the mechanisms of legal protection from various abuses in the sphere of public procurement, which has been shown as quite convenient for engaging in different deviant behaviours presented through numerous acts of corruption. In this respect, special attention should be put on the aspects of criminal law which are indirectly involved in this area, simultaneously pointing to the solutions accepted by the amended criminal legislation in Macedonia, including those envisaged in the legislation of the Republic of Croatia.
Keywords
public procurement; market economy; legal protection
Hrčak ID:
67113
URI
Publication date:
20.3.2011.
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