Five public procurement procedures with a combined value of €22.5 million were marred by numerous violations. These irregularities were detailed by Democracy Plus (D+) in a report titled “The Cost of Unfinished Procedures: Repeated Re-evaluations and the Absence of Contracts.”

The report’s data were obtained by monitoring procedures conducted by the Ministry of Industry, Entrepreneurship, Trade and Innovation (MINTI), the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport (MIT), the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MPB) and the Ministry of Health (MSh). According to the document, the practices identified led to prolonged procedures, their cancellation or failure to conclude contracts.

A statement said that one of the main problems identified was the improper appointment of members to evaluation committees. In addition, new grounds for excluding economic operators were presented only at the review stage, while operators offering abnormally low prices were recommended for contracts without a complete and documented analysis. The findings also include the unjustified shortening of statutory deadlines for submitting bids.

The document also highlights procurement procedures that remained blocked for more than two years, despite repeated decisions by the Procurement Review Body (OShP). As a result, the implementation of contracts was delayed, negatively affecting the efficiency of public spending.

Based on these findings, D+ is calling on contracting authorities to appoint evaluation committees in accordance with the law and to apply the principle of legal certainty when handling requests for review. The organization also recommends the proper assessment of abnormally low bids, ensuring transparency and proportionality in procurement, and completing procedures within statutory deadlines through the effective implementation of OShP decisions.

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Diana Matoshi Krasniqi, coordinator for advocacy and research at KDI, said: “An analysis should be conducted of the efficiency of competition procedures and value assurance, and legal reforms should be proposed that support not only digitalization and modernization but the structural formation of the entire process,”

The panel stressed that, based on experience to date in public procurement, reform oriented toward performance and quality is essential in order to ensure greater transparency and accountability.

Member of the Kosovo Assembly, Eliza Hoxha, said: “Our role today and going forward would be to see how we can improve them; now the first challenge is whether there is political will, the relevant institutions and the horizontal spectrum of other institutions connected to procurement processes, to have a working group on that matter and to have broad inclusion, which is the basic principle of democratic societies,”

Meanwhile, Member of the Kosovo Assembly Janina Ymeri highlighted the budgeting problem, saying: “Budgeting is initially a problem; the budget is stretched so much for a certain project that it is institutional laziness to simply divide a project over four or five years, and this prevents both municipalities and ministries from doing a job properly”,

Pressure from the media and the verdict of citizens’ votes were seen as important elements for increasing accountability and guaranteeing fair and efficient public procurement. However, it was emphasized that real change requires full transparency, continuous oversight, and uncompromising enforcement of the law, in order to build a procurement system that protects the public interest and ensures that every euro of taxpayers’ money is returned in real value to citizens.

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