The Law on Public Procurement in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2014 stipulated a series of innovations to enhance transparency in the procurement process. However, in certain important segments the law still did not offer transparency provisions that were entirely consistent with the basic principles, international standards and best practices of transparency in government procurement and it is necessary to take a number of steps that will lead to improvements in this area.

Legal framework, inter alia, does not provide the adequate availability of information on planned public procurement, since public procurement plans are not published on the public procurement portal. Published procurement plans do not include procedures for the award of small value, and the decisions to award the contract based on these procedures are not publicly announced. There is a noticeable lack of provisions that would contribute to the publication of public sector contracts concluded with suppliers. Also, there are no developed guidelines for the application of the criteria for the evaluation of tenders, in particular the criterion of the most economically advantageous offer. Therefore, it is crucial to improve legislation in order to remove the perceived shortcomings and provide a substantially higher level of transparency in public procurement in BiH.

This policy brief is published within the project Open Public Procurement in Bosnia and Herzegovina jointly implemented by the Centre for Investigative Reporting (CIN) , Analitika - Centre for Social Research, and the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (CPI). The Project is financed by the European Union and co-financed by the UK Government.

The publication in English is available HERE.

The publication in local languages is available HERE.

This publication has been produced with the assistance of the European Union. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the author and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union.