On 23 December 2019, the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia enacted the new Law on Public Procurement (hereinafter: the Law) and most of its provisions will start to apply from 1 July 2020.

Electronic application

The new legal solutions introduce significant reduction and simplification of procedures in the field of public procurement, notably by introducing electronic application through new Public Procurement Portal, which reduces administrative burden both on the side of bidders and on the side of procurers, and particularly as regards the reduction of bidding cost for small and medium-sized enterprises that may not have adequate administrative and professional capacities.

Electronic application also implies the submission of application for participation, e-catalogue and a possibility for procurers in public procurement procedure to require or allow bids to be submitted in the form of e-catalogue or to contain an e-catalogue in cases where electronic tools are used.

In this sense, by the proposed Law on Public Procurement the Republic of Serbia is harmonising with the requirements contained in the European Union Directives.

Obligation for bidders to adjust to the new law

Another novelty is contained in Article 111 of the Law, which stipulates the reasons why procurer may exclude an entity from procurement procedure. Therefore, legal entities registered in the Bidders’ Register of the Business Registers Agency shall be obliged, until 1 July 2020, to apply for issuance of certificate of non-existence of grounds for exclusion from public procurement procedure.

The request for issuance of certificate of non-existence of grounds for exclusion from public procurement procedure shall be submitted by a registered representative of a legal entity or a person authorised by such representative for submitting the request. The request shall be accompanied by certificate of non-conviction issued by relevant courts, as well as certificate of competent tax authorities on settlement of tax liabilities, which prove the non-existence of reasons for exclusion.

Legal entities registered in the Bidders’ Register which fail to provide the stated documents by 1 July 2020 shall be deleted from the Bidders’ Register ex officio.

The Regulation on the application of deadlines in administrative proceedings during a state of emergency which prescribes the extension of deadlines that have expired during a state of emergency, does not apply to the obligation of bidders to submit requests by 1 July.

However, the deadline by July 1, 2020 does not exclude the possibility for bidders to submit a request for re-entry in the Bidders’ Register, even after the deadline, with the same required documents and proof of payment of the appropriate fee.

Public procurements instituted before the application of the new Law

The public procurement procedures instituted before the new Law starts to apply (before 1 July 2020) will be completed in line with the regulations under which they were instituted, and the same regulations will also apply to the bidders’ rights protection. In all such cases, the status of registered bidder after 1 July 2020 will be proved by certificate issued by registrar of the Bidders’ Register stating that the bidder concerned is registered in line with the Law on Public Procurement and that fact will also be verifiable on the BRA’s website.

UPDATE:

Serbian Business Registers Agency on July 1, 2020, published a notice for bidders who did not submit a request for issuance of certificate of non-existence of grounds for exclusion from public procurement procedure, that, starting from July 6, 2020 SBRA will obtain the necessary documentation ex officio, and bidders are only obliged to submit a request to the SBRA with the proof of payment of the taxes.

This article is to be considered as exclusively informative, with no intention to provide legal advice.
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