Macedonia introduces new procurement law to tackle corruption

SKOPJE, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Macedonia's Public Procurement Bureau director Gjorgji Georgievski introduced Wednesday a new law on public procurement aimed at preventing corruption.

Speaking at the first public debate on the new draft-law on public procurement, Georgievski said that the law was drafted in cooperation with the World Bank and aimed at including red flags in the e-public procurement system, which would indicate corruption.

"Public procurement should be attractive for beneficiaries, including efficient and simple procedures, not additional burden in operations," he said.

Georgievski further said that the law also stipulated the introduction of an e-market of small public procurement, an e-catalogue, which would enable their swift and efficient settlement.

Present at the public debate, Macedonia's Finance Minister Dragan Tevdovski said the objective of the new law was to enhance transparency and control of procedures, but also to simplify them.

Tevdovski noted that the new law gave the opportunity to value quality besides price, taking into consideration European regulations and practice.

The public debates will continue in the upcoming months while the Macedonian parliament is scheduled to adopt the law in October. The law is slated to start implementation in January 2019. Enditem