The chairwoman of the State Appeals Commission on Public Procurement in Macedonia welcomed guests to a regional conference on public procurement review bodies. She thanked SIGMA for organizing the conference, which would allow experts to discuss theoretical and practical functioning of procurement review in EU countries and candidates. The Commission has achieved success since 2008 in decreasing appeal processing time, participating in training and legal amendments, and increasing transparency through its website. Its priorities are quality, timely review and introducing an electronic appeals management system. The Commission strives for anti-corruption through speedy, consistent review and transparency in its work. The conference will discuss implementation of EU remedies directives, independence of review bodies, and transparency and quality of decisions.

1. SPEECH
OF THE CHAIRWOMAN OF THE STATE APPEALS COMMISSION ON
PUBLIC PROCUREMENT, MAJA MALAHOVA
REGIONAL CONFERENCE
FOR PUBLIC PROCUREMENT REVIEW BODIES IN EU ENLARGEMENT COUNTRIES
Ohrid,
9-10 June, 2016

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Dear Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of the Republic of Macedonia, Mr. Vladimir
Peshevski,
Dear representative of the European Delegation in the Republic of Macedonia, Mr. Jaromir
Levicek,
Dear representatives of the European Commission, Mr. Bernd Wild and Ms. Marta Laszuk,
Dear Ms. Karen Hill, Head of SIGMA Programme
Dear representatives of SIGMA,
Dear guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Allow me on behalf of the State Appeals Commission on Public Procurement to greet and
welcome you to this two-day Regional Conference for Public Procurement Review Bodies in the
countries aspiring to membership in the European Union.
I am particularly pleased that today, at this Conference, we have gathered a large number of
experts on the public procurement system and that we will have the opportunity to discuss and
exchange experience both in terms of the theoretical and practical functioning of the public
procurement review in the candidate countries, and in the Member States of the European
Union. At the same time, I hope that this Conference will increase the possibility to deepen and
strengthen the mutual cooperation and exchange of experience between the countries of the
region.
I would particularly like to thank the representatives of SIGMA for providing us with the
opportunity to organise this Conference, which has always been my greatest wish and
inspiration for further work. Thank you for all your help and support in making this Conference
happen.
At the beginning, I would like to share with you a few information about the establishment and
method of work of the State Appeals Commission on Public Procurement, which exists since
2008 and is founded in accordance with the Law on Public Procurement.
As of the establishment of the State Commission, the part of the Law concerning review
procedures has been amended several times in order to ensure a more effective and more
efficient review in the contract award procedures.
In accordance with the Law on Public Procurement, this Commission is a state authority which is
autonomous in its operations and its decisions are obligatory for all parties to the procedure.
In the course of 2014, several amendments to the Law on Public Procurement were adopted,
which increased the competence of the State Commission; thus, in addition to deciding on
appeals lodged in public procurement procedures and deciding on appeals lodged in procedures
for awarding concessions and public private partnership, the State Commission became the
competent authority for deciding on appeals lodged against decisions of the Public Procurement
Council.

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Since the establishment of the State Commission until now, it has achieved major success,
starting from the decrease in the duration of the procedure for handling appeals, active
participation in drafting amendments to the Law on Public Procurement, active participation in
the training and professional development process of all involved parties in the contract award
procedures, increase in the staff number of the expert service and their vocational training,
introduction of the electronic archive and electronic distribution of cases, and the establishment
and continuous upgrading of its own web page with information and databases for providing
publicity and transparency in the work of the State Commission, electronic delivery of the State
Commission’s decisions to the parties in the procedures, etc.
The main priority of the State Commission for the upcoming period remains the quality and
transparent exercise of its competencies within the time limits set by law, maintaining and
upgrading the web page of the State Appeals Commission on Public Procurement, and as
particularly important is the introduction of an electronic system for management and handling
of the entire appeal procedure with the State Commission.
Like in the past years, in the course of 2016 as well, the State Appeals Commission on Public
Procurement pays particular attention to the cooperation with SIGMA and as a result in the first
half of 2016 one workshop was organised aimed at transferring knowledge and experience in
the field of public procurement, and by the end of this year we are planning to hold two more
workshops of this type. Within its regular operations, the State Commission participates in the
development of the National Programme for Adoption of the Acquis Communautaire, which is a
comprehensive long-term document defining the adoption dynamic of the EU law, strategic
guidelines, policies, reforms, structures, resources and deadlines to be met so that the Republic
of Macedonia would fulfil the requirements for membership in the European Union.
I would like to emphasise that the State Commission also strives towards anticorruption
activities based on speedy and efficient review as the primary function of institution,
development of consistent application of public procurement regulations, creating and
publishing legal practice, transparent operations and participation in the process of educating
the users. The State Commission has completely fulfilled the activities envisaged for 2015, and in
addition to transparency in the work of the institution, it also achieved constant decrease in the
time limit for resolving appeals in the review procedure.
As regards the anticorruption actions, the State Appeals Commission on Public Procurement as
an institution, since January 2009, only a month and a half after its establishment, signed the
Protocol on Cooperation for Prevention and Repression of Corruption and Conflict of Interests
that was signed, inter alia, by the State Commission for Prevention of Corruption, Public
Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Macedonia and by other institutions.
Concurrently, the availability and communication with the parties to the procedures and the
openness in the work of the State Commission are activities necessary in the fight against
corruption, which are evident in the everyday work of the State Commission.
Therefore, at the end of my speech, I want to particularly stress the significance of this
conference with a view to improving the public procurement system in the Republic of
Macedonia and to once again emphasise the importance of SIGMA and EU’s support in the
continuous enhancement and strengthening of the State Commission’s capacities. On this two-
day regional conference we will discuss the following topics: “Implementation of the Remedies
Directives in the EU Member States”, “The independence of the control bodies, or the review
bodies in the field of public procurement”, “Transparency of the remedies system and the

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quality of decisions issued in the review procedures, as well as the organisation of public
procurement review bodies”, topics which are particularly important and relevant for the
development and promotion of the overall public procurement system.
I hope that in the future we will have an opportunity to organise more professional workshops
and conferences of this type where we will share experience and knowledge and together we
will improve the broad picture of the review in public procurement procedures in the region and
in the public procurement system in general.
Thank you for your attention.