TI – Georgia: Multiple State Agencies Fail to Publish Simplified Procurement Contracts

Transparency International – Georgia, a local watchdog, recently released a study revealing that 20 public agencies have failed to publish simplified procurement contracts.

According to the organization, among them are such key government agencies as Government Administration, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Administration of the President, the State Security Service, etc.

For instance, in 2020-2023, the Ministry of Internal Affairs requested the right to carry out 338 procurements through the simplified procedure. The Government Administration requested the right to carry out 26 procurements by the simplified method, the Administration of the President did the same for 11 procurements, the State Security Service – for 41 procurements.

The law “On determining the criteria for simplified procurement and approving the procedure for conducting simplified procurement” states that public procurement can be carried out through simplified procedures in certain cases, such as when the value of goods/services is up to 5,000 GEL, when diplomatic missions and consular institutions of Georgia abroad procure goods/services worth up to 50,000 GEL, or when procurement organizations related to self-defense, security, and public order purchase worth up to 20,000 GEL, among other conditions.

In recent years, TI – Georgia has repeatedly observed that certain agencies fail to publish simplified procurement contracts in the electronic system of public procurement. The organization states that the State Procurement Agency has attributed this issue to a technical flaw of the CMR module and responded that the Agency continues to take actions with the aim of fully eliminating the technical flaws with plans to introduce a modified electronic system by January 1, 2025, to address these issues.

Recent studies cited by the organization indicate that some progress has been made in addressing the issue, with the number of agencies failing to publish contracts decreasing from 50 in 2017 to 20 currently. However, TI – Georgia emphasizes that the six-year timeframe (when TI-Georgia first wrote about the problem) should have been sufficient to fully resolve the technical flaw, further stating that “non-transparency of contracts makes it impossible to monitor corruption risks.”

TI – Georgia calls on the State Procurement Agency and procuring entities to pay closer attention to the issue of publishing simplified procurement contracts.

The watchdog also calls for an introduction of an amendment to the Code of Administrative Offenses that would consider the violation of the standards of publicity in public procurement to be an offense.

Also Read:

• 25/03/2023 – “TI Georgia”: Georgian Officials Submit Asset Declarations with Violations
• 29/03/2022 – TI Georgia on Simplified Public Procurement Amid Pandemic

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)