Speech by Karen Hill, Head of the SIGMA Programme, at the regional conference organised by SIGMA on Public procurement review bodies, which took place in Ohrid, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia on 9-10 June 2016.

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REGIONAL CONFERENCE FOR PUBLIC PROCUREMENT REVIEW BODIES
IN EU ENLARGEMENT COUNTRIES
Ohrid, 9-10 June 2016
Deputy Prime Minister Peshevski, Ms. Malahova, Mr. Levicek, Mr. Wild, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would like to welcome you to this conference on behalf of SIGMA, which is a joint initiative of the
OECD and the European Union. As many of you know, SIGMA has been supporting governments and
public administrations with public governance reforms for almost 25 years in EU Enlargement
countries and, since 2008, EU Neighbourhood countries as well.
Allow me first of all to thank SIGMA’s co-hosts of this event, the State Appeals Commission, and I can
honestly say it is a great pleasure for us all to meet here in Ohrid.
I am also very pleased to see so many representatives from our partner countries and international
donor organisations, as well as colleagues from the European Commission and the EU Delegation.
During these two days, we will discuss the importance of a well-functioning procurement review and
remedies system.
Effective remedies can improve the openness, transparency and fairness of the procurement system,
and support accountability throughout the public procurement cycle. An effective, speedy and
independent review system can generate trust in the whole public procurement system. As we all
know, confidence is a powerful incentive to competition. Companies must be able to find remedies
when they believe that procurement procedures have not been respected.
A well-functioning procurement review system can also help to correct unlawful decisions or actions
by purchasing bodies. Furthermore, it helps to discourage unlawful practices, not only by the
purchasing bodies but by the tenderers as well.
We all know that having a nice regulatory framework for public procurement is not enough in itself.
We also need effective mechanisms and tools to ensure that all actors in the public procurement
market apply the legislation in practice. Procurement review bodies have an important role in
enforcing the application of public procurement legislation.
However, procurement review bodies should also contribute to shaping procurement policy in their
own country, as well as to influencing the behaviour of the public and private sectors.
From the perspective of the policy maker, review bodies – through collecting, analysing and
publishing information on complaints lodged by economic operators – can play an active and
important role by giving feedback from their work on development of the public procurement
system. This data and information should be used for policy-making purposes, such as identifying
which aspects of procurement procedures are being appealed against successfully, identifying the
contracting authorities against which successful complaints are lodged most often, or identifying
tendencies in abusive complaints.

2. By publishing their decisions on a publicly-available website, which also provides proper search
facilities, review bodies can educate the actors of the procurement market, in both the public and
private sectors.
One of the three key requirements for public procurement in SIGMA’s Principles of Public
Administration deals exclusively with the remedies system, highlighting the importance of this area.
SIGMA conducts regular assessments of public governance systems, including the procurement
remedies systems in EU Enlargement countries. The assessments show that most countries have
stabilised the institutional set-up for procurement remedies and that the relevant bodies have
developed into mature institutions in recent years.
However, the assessments also highlight that although the specific situation is different from one
country to another, the remedies systems still suffer from several largely similar weaknesses. These
include shortcomings related to the real independence of the remedies function; lack of capacity;
delays in the handling of complaints; insufficient mechanisms for ensuring consistent application of
the law; a lack of appropriate administrative tools (especially regarding case and document
management); the absence of searchable databases with easy access to case law; and a tendency to
focus on purely formal errors and omissions.
In short, review bodies in the region still need to strengthen their independence and their
professional capacity. This is important as a well-functioning review system is in the interest of all
stakeholders: economic operators, contracting authorities and the general public.
We in SIGMA believe that the sharing of experience is a key component of good public governance –
learning from what has worked and what has not, and of course adapting these lessons to specific
country contexts, as there is no “one size fits all” solution. The requirements are the same for all
countries, but the solutions should be developed and adjusted to the specific circumstances of each
country. This is at the heart of our work within SIGMA, and this is the aim of this conference: to
facilitate the exchange of information and good practices, and to promote optimal, model solutions.
Of course, the conference also provides an opportunity for us to identify needs for further SIGMA
support, which I hope will also be a part of our discussions.
We agreed with the State Appeals Commission a participant-focused format for this conference, to
offer you time to present and discuss your own experiences, challenges and solutions. I would like to
thank, in particular, colleagues who have accepted our invitation to moderate our panel discussions.
I wish you all a successful conference and I am sure that we will have some very fruitful discussions.
Karen HILL, Head of Programme, SIGMA