The Fiscal Council 2016 Activity Report was presented by Fiscal Council representative Prof. Dr Pavle Petrovic. The Report the Fiscal council had submitted in March 2017, contains an analysis of the 2017 budget, the Government’s strategy and the laws with fiscal impact such as the Law on Local Self-Government which the Fiscal Council members helped draft. The Report also contains an analysis of fiscal trends and the reforms completed by the end of October 2016, as well as trend estimates for the remainder of 2016 intended as the basis for the drafting of the 2017 budget, said Petrovic. He added that the Report contains a special Report on the analysis of fiscal trends in the public sector 2016-2020 wherein the Fiscal Council lists what it believes to be necessary fiscal policies and reforms in the public sector, primarily public enterprises, the tax administration and general sector reform in the country. Petrovic said that by the end of 2016 the consolidated deficit was considerably reduced which reversed the trend of the public debt relative to the GDP, which is good. Petrovic also spoke of the reforms not conducted in 2016, mainly reforms in public enterprises, as well as the state-owned companies not yet privatized. There is a big risk that their losses and debts become part of the budget which would overturn the good results, opined Petrovic. He stressed that the rationalization of state administration is also lagging, and the 2016 analysis has revealed the problems in the local self-governments’ public finances and public utility company subsidies, which leads to lack of investment at the local level.

Following a debate the Committee members adopted the Report, by majority vote, accompanied by a Conclusion Proposal to be submitted to the National Assembly.

The Activity Report on the Republic Commission for the Protection of Rights in Public Procurement Procedures for the period 1 January 2016 – 31 December 2016 was presented by Commission President Hana Hukic. She said that most of the regular annual Report concerns data on the cases the Commission had handled. She added that the Commission was not fully staffed until the end of 2016, and its capacities have been brought up to norm in early 2017. The Commission Council had 267 sessions in the reported period, ruled on 1991 motions, 1370 of which (70%) on requests for protection of rights in public procurement procedures. Of the 1370 rulings, 784 cases (74%) the Commission ruled were founded, 126 were annulled, 656 partially annulled, 173 were estimations, and 411 (30%) of the cases were rejected as unfounded. The total value of the cases the Commission ruled on in 2016 was 118 billion RSD, said Hukic. She added that the Commission had collected 118 million RSD in fees, and speaking of control over the implementation of the Commission’s decisions in the cases of annulled procurements, 11 contractors failed to act on them, which is negligible compared to the decisions which were followed. Hukic also added that 35 cases requested fines and 10 cases were about annulled public procurement contracts. The Commission also received 126 Constitutional Court decisions, 69 of which were rejected, 57 accepted, which is 2.42% of all of the Commission’s rulings in the reported period, Hukic concluded. She also stressed that the Commission has reduced the time needed to act so that from the average 74 days per case in 2016, it came down to 35 days for 2016 cases and 30 days for 2017 cases.

Following a debate the Committee members adopted the Report, by majority vote, accompanied by a Conclusion Proposal to be submitted to the National Assembly.

The Report on the conducted supervision of the implementation of the Public Procurement Law in 2016 was presented by Milos Jovic of the Public Procurement Directorate who said that Chapter 5 – Public Procurement was opened in 2016 and after the European Commission’s assessment a bulk of the regulations was harmonized with the EU acquis. The reported period is marked by a favourable structure of public procurement procedures, 93% of which are ongoing procedures, and only 3% are direct contracting which is below EU average, said Jovic. On average the procedure takes 61 days, there is a 49% boost in framework contracts i.e. 2199 procedures per annum in 2016, while centralized public procurement are on the rise, said Jovic. He added that the average number of tenders is 2.9%, while the most economically advantageous tender criterion has a negative trend of 12%. Jovic said that increased activity by the Directorate resulting in the drafting of guidelines for the suppression of corruption in public procurement procedures had improved the supervision of the implementation of the Law. He also added that the Directorate had filed eight misdemeanour charges and has recorded more than 60% growth of cases tried at the request of other state bodies compared to 2015. The Directorate also ruled on 60 reported cases, and acted preventively in over 200 cases which had yielded results, Jovic concluded. He informed the Committee members that a new Public Procurement Portal is in the works and by the end of 2017 the country is to handle the challenge of harmonizing with European directives and EU acquis, which means the adoption of a new public procurement law and law on private public partnership and concession.

Following a debate the Committee members adopted the Report on the conducted supervision of the implementation of the Public Procurement Law in 2016 by majority vote.

The sitting was attended by the following Committee members and deputy members: Olivera Pesic, Goran Kovacevic, Vojislav Vujic, Momo Colakovic, Veroljub Arsic, Zoltan Pek, Nikola Jolovic, Zoran Krasic, Goran Ciric, Dr Milorad Mijatovic, Srbislav Filipovic, Dusan Bajatovic and Zika Gojkovic.

The sitting was chaired by Committee Chairperson Dr Aleksandra Tomic.