Interview with mr Sasa Varinac, Public Procurement Expert

Lawyer Sasa Varinac, has served as chairman of the Republic Commission for the Protection of Rights in Public Procurement Procedures and is one of the most prominent lawyers dealing with this topic and an expert on the project “EU Support for Improving Business Environment”. As part of his engagement on the project, Attorney Varinac provides training to civil servants on public procurement and has written a Study on the Participation of Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Public Procurement Procedures, with recommendations to increase their participation. Attorney Varinac is the author and co-author of several articles, publications and studies on the topic of public procurement and is a certified international consultant in this field.
We met Sasha Varinec in his office in early November, when we discussed the topic of the Study he wrote, five one-day trainings through which the study was presented, as well as the topic of the Proposal of the new Law on Public Procurement, which is in the Parliamentary procedure. and what changes that law makes.
What is the current situation regarding the regulation of public procurement procedures in Serbia?
– We expect the adoption of the new Public Procurement Law by the end of this year. The law should bring about a number of new solutions, many of which will be of great importance for increasing the participation of SMEs in public procurement.
Why is SME’s involvement in public procurement significant?
– Increasing the participation of SMEs in public procurement will, above all, contribute to greater competition in public procurement procedures. This is especially important given that the level of competition in public procurement in the Republic of Serbia is still significantly below that at EU level, and according to the Public Procurement Administration in 2018, the average number of tenders per procurement procedure was only 2 , 5, the lowest level in the past five years.

What do you expect that will concretely change with the adoption of the new law in terms of participation of SMEs in public procurement?
– Let’s start with the document that precedes the bill. Namely, in the Strategy of Public Procurement Development of the Republic of Serbia for the period 2014-2018. It is stated that better access to SMEs will be facilitated, through the design of public procurement by lot. The subdivision of the procurement subject by lot is of the utmost importance as it involves small tenderers who can submit a tender for smaller parts of the procurement. Partitioning is possible both by quantity and by the specificity of the subject matter of the contract for individual parties, which may correspond to the specialization of SMEs or by geographical representation, for example by region. Until now, it has been the practice that large bidders are favored and they have hired subcontractors who have not been able to contact the contracting authority directly for payment and often run the risk of not being paid after the work has been completed. The draft new law provides that the contracting authority may directly pay the subcontractor for the service performed, for example. Also, the procedure for protection of rights (appeal procedure) has been changed in favor of the bidder and opens more possibilities for appeal. This procedure will take place as well as court proceedings, which means that both parties (contracting authority and tenderer) are informed about the course of the procedure, about all the facts on which the decision will be based, which was not the case earlier.
In your Study, you devoted the entire section 3 to the situation in the European Union and within that section you addressed the situation of SMEs in the EU and public procurement. So, what is the practice in the EU?
– The 2014 EU Procurement Directives, and in particular Directive 2014/24 / EU, have as one of their objectives the incentive for MSMEs to participate in public procurement procedures, through various mechanisms that are in line with EU rules and principles. Specifically, EU directives offer individual solutions in line with the recommendations given in the Small Business Act adopted in the EU. These decisions relate, in particular, to: Rules regarding the distribution of public procurement by lot; How to prove the conditions for participation in public procurement procedures; Proportional determination of conditions for participation in public procurement procedures and the possibility of direct payment to subcontractors under concluded contracts. These solutions have also been implemented in the Proposal for a New Law on Public Procurement in the Republic of Serbia, which is expected to begin implementation on July 1, 2020.
So most of the solutions of the 2014 EU directive have been implemented in the Proposal for a New Public Procurement Law expected to be adopted at the beginning of the year?
– That’s right. The adoption of the new Law on Public Procurement is also important in view of the further process of negotiations with the EU. Namely, public procurement is covered by Chapter 5 in these negotiations (together with public-private partnerships and concessions). One of the benchmarks for completing negotiations on this chapter is to further align our regulations with the EU acquis in this area.
Please conclude by summarizing the recommendations you have made in your Study to increase the participation of SMEs in public procurement in our country.
– First of all, there is a development of guidelines for contracting authorities, in order to give more detailed guidance on good practices, it means in situations in which it is justified to design public procurement by lot and explanation how to do that, in order to enable SMEs to participate in the public procurement process. Then conduct targeted training regarding the use of the new Public Procurement Portal for the needs of SMEs, which will encourage their greater participation in procurement processes. It is also important that after the entry into force of the new Public Procurement Law, the existing models of bidding documents should be upgraded with solutions from the new law, and models of bidding documents for those items in which the most frequently submitted tenders are submitted by SMEs, ie in those segments where SMEs operate to the maximum extent, whereby the competent ministry or the Serbian Chamber of Commerce would submit the information to the Public Procurement Office. These changes must be accompanied by continuing education and it is necessary to organize trainings for contracting authorities and SMEs, in order to present practical solutions and opportunities regarding participation in public procurement procedures and the preparation of tenders. It is also suggested to establish a permanent contact (telephone line, etc.) through which representatives of SMEs can provide daily answers to situations they face in practice, as well as to establish mechanisms for monitoring the performance of SMEs in public procurement and developing mechanisms and good practices. practices aimed at reducing the negative impact of centralized public procurement on SMEs. These would be the recommendations explained in more detail in the Study itself. I have to add that the preparation of the Study was preceded by meetings with focus groups of 20 participants – representatives of contracting authorities and tenderers, who helped to look at all the shortcomings of public procurement procedures, and in terms of the extent of participation of SMEs in those procedures.
My last question is about the trainings about public procurement that you are holding as part of our project, let’s inform us briefly what is the curriculum of the training, how many participants you have, and I will be present on your next training, according to our agreement
– So the trainings are carried out in cooperation with NAPA, we train the contracting authorities, ie civil servants. The aim of the training is to support public procurement employees and contracting authorities in attracting SMEs to participate in public procurement procedures in the Republic of Serbia, especially with regard to micro-enterprises, both by presenting obstacles to the participation of SMEs in public procurement and , in particular, by making recommendations for increasing the participation of SMEs in public procurement. So far, there have been 5 one-day trainings and 20 participants each. The training contains both theoretical and practical part.
Thank you for this interview and see you in training.

We attended the training at the Palace of Serbia on November 15, 2019 on the topic of increasing the participation of SMEs in public procurement, held by Sasa Varinac to representatives of state institutions. On this occasion, we spoke with an official of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, in charge of public procurement of goods and services. In his opinion, this training was very useful because it contains many practical examples that he will apply in his work in the future. The tax administration trainee also said that what matters most to her is that the lecturer delivers case studies and that the training is interactive because everyone is actively involved, can share their knowledge and hear other experiences. “The lecturer is an expert in the subject and we have really learned a great deal from him, but we have learned about changes to the regulations in this area that have yet to be adopted,” she concluded.