State Secretary at the Serbian Finance Ministry Goran Radosavljevic said Wednesday that Brussels' view of the dynamics of the process to amend the Serbian public procurement law differed from the one expressed by Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Vincent Degert.

On September 30, Degert sent a letter to Serbian Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Mirko Cvetkovic, stating that changing the public procurement law could lead to serious confusion in that field and also might create a legal vacuum.

“We received reviews from the European Commission and Brussels's opinion differs from Mister Degert's. They certainly welcome the changes leading to improving the system, saying that Serbia should decide which institutions suit its needs and that they will be able to give an opinion about the solutions only after at least one year passes from putting the law into practice,” Radosavljevic said.

Speaking at the roundtable titled “Public Procurement Law - is there any barrier to corruption,” organized by Tanjug,
Radosavljevic said the debate on the bill amending and modifying the public procurement law was underway and should be completed by mid-December.

The bill should be adopted by end of year, together with the 2012 budget, he said.

He said there was also an idea to organize in the Serbian parliament a public hearing on the bill, which should be passed by the government in the meantime.

Radosavljevic pointed to expectations that new solutions would lead to a more efficient and more economical public spending.

Preventive mechanisms to help reduce corruption in public procurement should also be introduced in the bill, he said.
Besides Radosavljevic, also participating in the roundtable discussion were Nemanja Nenadic of Transparency Serbia, Vice President of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce (PKS) Vidosava Dzagic and Danijela Bojic, the Logistics Manager of Public Enterprise of PTT Communications Srbija.