Transparency Azerbaijan holds public discussion on the “Role of the Civil Society in the Public Procurement Process”

Posted by: admin | Posted on: Май 20, 2015

Baku, 20 May, 2015 – Transparency Azerbaijan, in the framework of the European Union – funded regional project «National Integrity System Assessment in the ENP East countries, today held a roundtable entitled “Possible perspectives of cooperation between the state and civil society in the sphere of public procurement ”. At the round table the draft “trilateral integrity tender pact” will be presented to the officials responsible for public procurement in state agencies in organization of public tenders humanitarian sector (construction of hospitals and schools; procurement of school text books and uniforms; organization of services in the utilities sector; procurement of social services for people with disabilities and other health problems) to ensure transparency and accountability in the public tender process.

At the event, Rena Safaraliyeva, Executive Director of Transparency Azerbaijan, underlined that under the framework of Action Plan on Combating Corruption (2012-2015), the Azerbaijani government committed to enhance the public procurement process and increase its transparency and as of date implemented 45% of the measures set forth therein. Among commitments fully implemented are: creation of single electronic data base for registration of sales and purchase agreement; as well as publication of procurement plans for the next year on the website of the Public Procurement Agency. Commitments to be implemented yet are: organization of e-tenders, quick response mechanisms to the complaints, passing information to the law enforcement agencies on the facts of corruption; efficient oversight mechanisms for implementation of procurement contracts, etc., said Safaraliyeva. She added that as of date, Transparency International has monitored over 100 tenders over the globe. This experience allowed the organization to develop the trilateral integrity tender pact that can be of use for implementation of commitments under the National Action Plan.

Mr. Olaf Heidelbach, Programme Manager, EU Delegation to Azerbaijan, welcomed the participants and stated that the EU supports reform initiatives in public procurement and is willing to share good practices.

Considering this, Mr. Mahammad Muradov, Project Coordinator of NIS, presented the draft “trilateral integrity tender pact” and elaborated on the provisions of the contract. He said that the contract is signed between a client – public agency, contractor – private company and monitoring agency – NGO. According to the mechanism, before the tender process starts all parties shall agree that the conclusion and implementation of the contract will be corruption free; otherwise legal responsibility will follow. At the end he emphasized that tender mechanism mentioned above works in practice and that Transparency Azerbaijan is ready to cooperate at least for one socially important tender.