General

The public procurement represents a process of using public funds by government and public institutions of the Republic of Macedonia, for the purpose of obtaining external resources and services, mostly from commercial providers. The public procurement in the Republic of Macedonia is regulated with the Law on Public Procurement (Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia 24/12. The Law contains the conditions and procedures for public procurement by government and public bodies. The competent institution for implementation of the legal regulation in this area is the Public Procurement Bureau of the Republic of Macedonia (www.bjn.gov.mk), a body within the Ministry of Finance.

Tendering procedures
The Public Procurement agreement may be an agreement for public procurement of goods, services or public procurement agreement on works. Public procurement agreements are awarded by application of an open procedure, restricted procedure, competitive dialogue or negotiated procedure by previous publication of an announcement. For smaller procurements up to the amount of 5000 EUR, the procedure of direct bidding is applied, and for selection of a design solution, the procedure includes design contest. The open procedure means a right of every economic operator to be able to lodge a bid, while during the restricted procedure, a request to participate may be filed by every economic operator, however, only the selected candidates shall submit offers. The competitive dialogue is a form of restricted procedure, whereas the contracting authority enters into a dialogue with the selected candidates regarding the solutions that shall be contained in their bids. The negotiated procedure is also a form of restricted procedure, whereas the contracting authority enters negotiation with the selected candidates regarding the conditions of the agreement, before adopting the final decision.

Public procurement may be individually conducted by the contracting authority or may be conducted as a group procurement of several institutions, conducted by a central procurement body. There is a possibility for written framework agreement among one or several contracting authorities, with one or several economic operators, for realization of public procurement within a determined period of time, especially for regularly procured products and services (for example, telecommunication services).

The decision for initiation of a public procurement procedure shall be adopted by the contracting authority, and the public procurement procedure shall be conducted by a public procurement commission, elected by the contracting authority.

Tender Documentation
The tender documentation is the collection of documents, information, and conditions, representing the basis for preparation, submission, and evaluation of the bid application, i.e. the bid. The tender documentation should contain clear and precise conditions, criteria, and other necessary information regarding the manner of conduction of the procedure for awarding a public procurement contract.

The tender documentation shall contain the following:

-General information regarding the contracting authority;
-Instructions regarding the legal terms and the necessary conditions for participation in the contract awarding procedure;
-Criteria and documents to determine the capacity of bidders to realize the specific procurement;
-Instructions regarding preparation and submission of the technical and financial offer;
-Detailed and complete information regarding the criteria for selection of the most favorable bid;
-Instruction regarding the legal protection in the contract awarding procedure for public procurement, and
-Bank guarantee and other specific information, according to the actual procurement.

Legal or physical entities participating in the preparation or evaluation of the tender documents cannot appear in the capacity of bidders. The contracting authority is obliged to provide availability of the tender documentation to each interested economic operator, on one of the following media – electronic, printed or magnetic. Several economic operators may lodge a group application for the public procurement procedure, whereas, there will not be a need for them to be related in a legal form. In case the group offer is selected as the most favorable, the contracting authority may require from the economic operators to merge in an adequate legal form for the purpose of contract realization.

Time Terms

The announcement for contract awarding for a public procurement shall be published on the web page of the Public Procurement Bureau, and in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia. The time terms shall be counted from the day of sending the call for publication in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia. The Bureau and the Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia are obliged to publish the announcement within a period of five working days from the day of receipt. In relation to the public procurement agreements with estimated value over 500.000 EUR for goods and services, i.e. 2.000.000 EUR for works, the public call shall be mandatorily published in an Official journal of the European Union, or adequate publication available to the wide international professional and other public.  

The contracting authority shall mandatorily send notification for concluded agreement to the Bureau, for the purpose of publication on the web page of the Bureau, within a period of 30 days upon completion of the procedure.

Regarding the time terms for submitting the bids, the Law on Public Procurement defines the following terms:

- In case of an open procedure, the usual period for delivery of the bids is at least 52 days. With exception, there is a possibility for shorter terms for cases as defined with the Public Procurement Law (article 64-66).
- In case of a restricted procedure, the usual period for submitting the applications for participation (first phase of the procedure) is at least 37 days. With exception, there is a possibility for shorter periods for cases as defined in the Law on Public Procurement (article 69-70). The contracting authority shall select at least five candidates to which it will send a request for submission of bids (second phase of the procedure). The term for delivery of the bids may not be shorter than 40 days, except for emergencies as defined with the Law (article 75-76).
- In case of a public procurement procedure involving a competitive dialogue, the period for submission of the application for participation (first phase of the procedure) is at least 37 days, except for cases as defined with the Public procurement law (article 81). The contracting authority shall select at least three candidates to which it shall send request for bids (second phase of the procedure). The period for submission of the offers shall be defined by the contracting authority.
- In case of a public procurement procedure involving negotiation, the period for submission of the application for participation (first phase of the procedure) is at least 37 days, except for cases as defined with the Public procurement law (article 90-91). The contracting authority shall select at least three candidates to which it shall send request for bids (second phase of the procedure). The period for submission of the offers shall be defined by the contracting authority.
- In case of public procurement procedure with collecting bids on a determined amount of the agreement of 5000 to 200 euros, the period for submission of bids shall be 14 days from the day of publication of the public call on the web page of the Bureau, i.e. 8 days after sending the request to the economic operators. If the amount of the agreement is up to 5000 euros, in that case publication of call is not necessary.
- In case of a public procurement procedure with competition for a design solution, the period for submission of the plans and project shall be at least 35 days from the day of sending the call to the Bureau and to the Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia.

Links and sources

Legal regulation and the necessary information in relation to the public procurement procedures may be found on the web page of the Public Procurement Bureau of the Republic of Macedonia (www.bjn.gov.mk)  

The public procurement calls and notifications for awarding a public procurement agreement shall be published on the web page of the Public Procurement Bureau (www.bjn.gov.mk), and in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia (www.slvesnik.com.mk).