The Government of Kosovo (the Ministries and the Prime Minister's Office), in the procurement planning for 2023, have foreseen 935 activities, of which only 336 activities have been initiated resulting in 489 contracts. Their joint value is 442 million euros, while the value of the contracts is around 84 million euros, 28 million euros of which are unplanned contracts.

This is stated in the report "Performance of the Government of the Republic of Kosovo in the implementation of procurement", published by the Initiative for Progress (INPO).

According to INPO's conclusions, the Ministries and the Prime Minister's Office do not adhere to procurement planning, about half of the concluded contracts are outside the annual procurement planning.

The researcher from INPO, Arbër Kabashi, has emphasized that during the year 2023, 152 contracts have been signed by 17 contracting authorities, 489 are planned contracts, and 463 unplanned contracts.

Kabashi added that the Ministry of Justice has exceeded procurement planning by 311 percent, because it has signed two contracts related to legal representation of the ministry which were not at all in procurement planning, the value of which is over 1.2 million euros.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Industry, Entrepreneurship and Trade, in procurement planning, has foreseen activities related to state reserves. According to him, from the total value of activities that has been foreseen, it is about 18 million euros, while 14 million euros are for activities that had to do with the state reserve.

Kabashi added that the Ministry of Infrastructure has foreseen contracts for the construction of the Prizren-Tetova road worth about 10 million euros, but according to him, this contract has not been initiated, only the activity for designing the project has been initiated.

The executive director of INPO, Albulena Nrecaj, has said that in order to be more accurate in comparing the data, INPO has used the electronic system to see the compatibility of the data, because according to her, they often do not match the iProcurement system.

INPO has recommended that the Ministries and the Prime Minister's Office take care that the annual procurement planning is done in relation to their institutional objectives and that the needs assessment process is done on the basis of measuring and efficient indicators, so that the tendering of contracts is based on efficient and effective planning. /A. Shala/