The public procurement procedure is generally understood as the process by which a special group of legal persons known as procuring entities procure subjects of interest such as goods, works and services. The public procurement procedure links planning requirements with the final fulfilment of requirements important for society. It includes the use of public funds and a large portion of the state budget. The system of public procurement should ensure that procuring entities use public funds economically. If society understands the system of public procurement in this way, this can bring prominent businessmen and investors to the country, because such a policy shows a willingness to conduct business in good faith, wisely, and with equally shared risks for business.

Binding indicators for budgetary funds for 2001 were provided for the Office in Act No 472/2000 Coll. of Laws on the state budget for 2001.

The Office used 96.8% of its budgetary funds. Budgetary funds were not completely spent because the Office expected higher expenditures for training and also changed the method of examining and financing examinations during the year.

As of 31 December 2001, the Office employed 109 persons with an average age of 40 years. The actual number of employees was 96.4% of the planned number.

Training of employees was aimed at enhancing their professional knowledge and language skills.

The Office acquired most information technology and also partially office equipment through the PHARE programme. Delivery was carried out in a number of steps and lasted from November 2000 till January 2001.

One of the main tasks of the Office in 2001 was to manage public procurement policy, to provide methodological guidance, and to create supporting instruments in order to improve the application of public procurement methods and procedures.

The Office received 510 written applications for methodological guidance during the assessed period.

In the public procurement process some problems arose in relation to submitting documents issued by municipalities and confirming whether candidates or tenderers had records of tax arrears on intangibles collectable through a revenue ruling procedure. Another problem arose due to time pressure in relation to concluding contracts on compulsory motor vehicle insurance. Methodological guidelines were elaborated for these issues.

In order to simplify and facilitate procurement by procuring entities, the Office prepared models of tender documentation for open procedures for the procurement of goods and services.

In 2001 the Office started work on the entrepreneur register, carried out an analysis of the activities necessary for maintaining the entrepreneur register, and drew up agreements on co-operation with institutions issuing documents necessary for candidates and tenderers to prove the fulfilment of conditions for participation in public procurement procedures and whose objective is to verify data regularly.

The Office also compiled preliminary software for maintaining the List of entrepreneurs by which applications from entrepreneurs for incorporation into the List were accepted. The incorporation of entrepreneurs into the register started in October 2001. A total of 239 confirmations on incorporation into the List of entrepreneurs had been issued by 31 December 2001.

In compliance with the Public Procurement Act and approved "National Training Programme Policy for Acquiring Professional Qualification in Public Procurement", the Office, in co-operation with certain selected organisations providing training courses, arranged professional training for applicants applying for acquiring professional qualifications. Beside the Office's own employees, other persons selected and trained by the Office also lectured at training courses for acquiring professional qualification.

From the total number of participants attending training courses, 3,379 persons successfully passed the examinations (92%). The final phase of the process for acquiring professional qualifications for public procurement is to enter the successful participants into the List of professionally qualified persons (herein after referred to as "the list") and issue licences of professional qualifications in the field of public procurement. A total of 2,264 persons were entered into the list up to 31 December 2001.

Within promotional activities, the Office published a bulletin whose main objective was to inform the public about the Office's two-year activities, new information on Trade Union activity, and the consolidated version of Act No 263/1999 Coll. of Laws on Public Procurement and on Amendment to Certain Acts as amended by Act No 557/2001 Coll. of Laws.

In 2001 the Office was assigned new tasks in relation to the application of Act No 211/2000 Coll. of Laws on the free access to information and on amendments to certain acts. The Office appointed a contact person, installed information boards in the premises of the Office's headquarters as well as at Regional Offices, published information about the Office on the Internet, compiled and published price lists for providing information.

On the basis of the tasks assigned to the Office through Resolution of the Government of the Slovak Republic No 694 of 30 August 2000 on auditing compliance with activities relating to financing central authorities of the state administration and organisations subordinate to them, as amended by Resolution of the Government of the Slovak Republic No 74 of 24 January 2001, the Office drew up a draft act amending Act No 263/1999 Coll. of Laws on Public Procurement and on Amendment to Certain Acts. The main intention of its authors was to achieve even more efficient and effective use of public funds and increase transparency in public procurement procedures. The joint proposal for the act was discussed and approved by the National Council of the Slovak Republic on 29 November 2001 and published in issue 219 of the Collection of Law on 23 December 2001 under No 557/2001 Coll. of Laws.

In 2001, twenty actions were lodged at the Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic for review of the Office's decisions: 10 were ruled in favour of the Office, 3 against the Office's decisions, and no dates were set by the Court for hearings of 7 disputes.

The Office's activities relating to the process of accession of the Slovak Republic to the European Union were also carried out during this year. The Office participated in works carried out by Working Group No 1 - Free Movement of Goods.

A twinning project aimed mainly at the approximation of public procurement legislation started in May. Under the project, a number of negotiations were held between the partners of the Office and Italian and Swedish experts on public procurement.

The Office further co-operated with partners from V4 countries and EU Member States during the assessed period. The Office's employees undertook a number of business trips abroad (for example, to the Czech Republic, Hungary, Belgium, Great Britain, France) aimed mainly at gaining support for the integration ambitions of the Slovak Republic in relation to the European Union.

On the basis of the status of observer, which the Slovak Republic acquired in 2000, the Office's representatives attended a meeting of the Committee for Government Procurement.

Following thorough preparations in 2000, the Office started publishing the Journal of Public Procurement in 2001. The administration, i.e. typesetting, production and distribution, was carried out in accordance with the contract concluded with Poradca podnikateľa spol. s r.o., Žilina. A total of 53 issues of the Journal were published up to the end of 2001, containing 11,887 public procurement notices.

Procuring entities most frequently used open tenders (53%). The second most used public procurement procedure was negotiated procedure without prior notification (41%).

An analysis of the notices showed that 26% of tendering methods were cancelled. The most frequent reasons for cancelling tendering methods were: tenders failing to comply with tendering documentation, failure to comply with the conditions for the participation of candidates in tendering procedures, or because it was so ordered by the Office.

In 2001 the Office carried out supervision and control over public procurement procedures organised by procuring entities on the basis of 248 submissions. In 12 cases the Office co-operated with other inspection bodies, and in 79 cases the Office applied the Act on Administrative Proceedings for ruling on submissions.

In 9 cases the Office gave rulings according to Art. 90 on imposing fines totalling SKK 2.06 million (*EUR 0.048 million). During the assessed period 1,245 submissions on objections were delivered to the Office. Most frequently they concerned the exclusion of tenderers from tendering procedures.

In comparison with 2000, a new entry was included in the statistical statement for 2001, in particular information about framework contracts according to Art. 6 par. 2 of the Public Procurement Act.

Procuring entities completed 5,699 public procurement procedures in 2001 leading to the conclusion of contracts in compliance with the Public Procurement Act, of which 5,323 were concluded according to the Commercial Code and in 376 cases framework contracts were concluded. Of the total sum, 1,007 tendering methods were cancelled and 710 tendering methods were not completed.

Procuring entities concluded contracts for a total of SKK 55.7 billion (*EUR 1.29 billion). The average saving of funds reached 6.0%.

An analysis of the used public procurement methods shows that the non-tendering procurement method was used most frequently, i.e. the negotiated procedure without prior notification (50.12%). The number of contracts concluded with tenderers based abroad increase significantly during the assessed period to 256 contracts.

* Average exchange rate in 2001: 1 EUR = 43.309 SKK