Back to News
Meeting with representatives of The Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds
May 5, 2022

Meeting with representatives of The Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds

Representatives of the Ministry at the meeting included Ms. Iva Kovač, Head of Sector for Supervision of the System, Ms. Kristina Ozimec Škof, Head of Sector for Horizontal Issues and Complaints and Ms. Jelena Dukarić, Head of Service for Risk Management and Horizontal Affairs.

At the meeting AmCham’s position paper was presented “Improving the Authority of the Institutions in the Public Procurement System“ that analyzes problems related to the competence of the institutions faced by the contracting authorities and tenderers and suggest ways to improve and modify the system.

Regarding the bodies in the system, AmCham deems it necessary: 

-to regulate by means of the law that the bodies in the system cannot be more stringent than the Public Procurement Act itself and that the ex-ante and the ex-post controls must comply with the relevant practices of the State Commission and the HAC;
-to harmonize the practice of the bodies in the system so that it complies with the decisions of the State Commission and the HAC, and that it is not more strict than these, and, in that respect, to improve the direct communication between the bodies in the system with the State Commission and the HAC;
-to update the Rules on financial corrections making sure that they are not in any sense more strict than the Public Procurement Act or the COCOF Guidelines;
-to publish the results of the ex-ante controls in the form of a document with an overview of the determined facts, which will be binding for the bodies in the system, since the current manner of ex-ante control, in which the Beneficiaries receive Procurement Documentation with very many comments, many of which relate to the implementation stage, is not efficient for any stakeholder in the process of the ex-ante control; 
-to ensure that the contracting authorities cannot receive financial correction for the provision of the Procurement Documentation that has been evaluated as acceptable during the ex-ante control;
-to not determine financial corrections for the contracting authorities following later changes in the practice of the State Commission or the HAC in those cases when the contracting authorities complied with the practice valid at the time.

Further cooperation between AmCham and the Ministry was agreed at the meeting and the participants agreed that stronger communication of all institutional stakeholders in the public procurement system is needed in order to achieve better harmonization and action in order to eliminate possible uncertainties for contracting authorities and tenderers.

AmCham representatives at the meeting included Public Procurement Committee members Ms. Jelena Markulin, Ms. Kristina Singer and Mr. Dražen Malbašić. 

Join AmCham

Join the leading international business community in Croatia.

Since 1998, AmCham Croatia represents business interests of American, international as well as Croatian companies. With 326 members, employing over 95.000 people, we are the voice of international business in Croatia. We are the first choice of international companies for policy advocacy in Croatia.

Join us now