Uzbekistan develops draft law “On public procurement”

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- The drafts of the law "On public procurement", the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers "On measures for further improvement of the system of public procurement", the Regulations "On the procedure of tendering (competitive) bidding for public procurement of goods (works, services)", "On the determination of the suppliers based on competitive list for public procurement of goods (works, services)", "On the order of direct contracts for the supply of goods (works, services) of the Public Procurement" was discussed in the meeting of the Interagency Working Group. The discussions will last 3 days in the period of 14 to 16 February 2014 in Tashkent region.

Treasury of the Ministry of Finance Republic of Uzbekistan and the “Budget System Reform in Uzbekistan" project, the joint project of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Uzbekistan and UNDP, organized event, aimed at assisting the Government of the Republic of Uzbekistan in the improvement of the public procurement system. Project activities in this area focus on the development of the draft law "On Public Procurement" and regulations on major procurement procedures, preparation of teaching materials on procurement procedures.

In order to implement this Protocol an interagency working group was formed and a preliminary draft of the above regulations was developed. The interagency working group included representatives of the Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations, Investments and Trade, State Committee on privatization, de-monopolization and Competition, UzEx and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Uzbekistan.

The purpose of the visiting session of the interagency working group was a detailed discussion of the draft laws on public procurement. It is worth noting that for the quality finalization of the draft regulations it was important to take into account the views and interests of large procuring budget users and experts in the field. And in this regard along with representatives of ministries and departments, representatives of companies, independent consultants, and leading experts in the field of public procurement were invited to the retreat discussion.

-At the moment there does not exist “Law on public procurement”. Although, the work in this direction is being carried out according to the respective legislative documents, including the Resolution of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Cabinet of Ministers – said in his interview Dilshod Urinbaev, the Director of SUE “Tashkenttenderconsulting”. - I feel excited to note that in this event, organized in assistance of UNDP and World Bank, we are working on each part of the Law and by-laws in this field, in participation of a key ministries and organizations. The new documents aimed at improving the legislation in this field taking into account the revealed gaps, introducing the new methods, which will enable to create a contemporary public procurement system, free of bureaucracy. This means, that first of all, the procurement procedures should be eased and well thought, as well as developing respective regulations and norms, favorable for both customers and suppliers. Therefore, I am confident to note that this document is important, as it should contain clearly developed procedures, which can answer to all currently arising questions of procurement process participants.

During the meeting, the participants discussed the rules and regulations imposed by the draft statutes and regulations. Special attention was directed at the issues of competition, transparency, accountability, improvement of efficiency and effectiveness of public procurement, solutions to the problems encountered with the current practice of public procurement. As a result a number of solutions for the tender preparation, determination of maximum prices of the examination, the division into stages of tenders, the appeal of the results of tenders, etc have been proposed. The participants proposed amendments to allow for flexibility and simplification of public procurement procedures.

Public procurement constitutes 11% of GDP or otherwise saying one third of consolidated budget of the country