Cartel agreement on division of sources of procurement

Abstract

Regulated public procurement system provides conditions for a free and non-discriminatory competitive fight between bidders, as participants in the tender procedure, thus achieving rational and efficient use of public funds. This paper has examined the influence of various elements on the level of competition in the public procurement procedure that is the probability of violation of effective competition, starting with the assumption that the number of bid submitters in the procedure is negatively correlated with the probability of the existence of restrictive practices. The analyzed factors in the causal relation are divided into two categories: objective, which are procedural and in which the participation criteria emerges as the most important criteria, and subjective which are of contractual nature and in which contractual agreement between competitors emerges as the most important form. Starting from the openness of the system as its essential characteristics, a special focus in the research was given to the issue of dynamic equilibrium that is to the mechanisms of maintenance and adjustments within the system of proper protection of competition. The conclusion of this paper indicates that the models of 'tender rigging' and 'bid rigging' require the application of different rules and complex corpus of legal measures, in terms of combining preventive and punitive measures, as well as property and personal-legal sanctions and it includes, in terms of effectiveness and rationality of treatment, a specific sequence of their implementation, and this consequently means different levels of institutional treatment.

Uređen sistem javnih nabavki obezbeđuje uslove za slobodnu i nediskriminatornu konkurentsku borbu između ponuđača kao učesnika u tenderskom, odnosno postupku javne nabavke, čime se ostvaruje racionalno i ekonomično korišćenje javnih sredstava; isti efekat štiti se, sa druge strane, suzbijanjem koruptivne aktivnosti u postupku. Radom je ispitivan uticaj različitih elemenata na nivo konkurentnosti u postupku javne nabavke, odnosno stepen verovatnoće narušavanja efektivne konkurencije, uz pretpostavku da je broj podnosilaca ponuda u postupku obrnuto srazmeran stepenu verovatnoće postojanja restriktivne prakse. Analizirani činioci u kauzalnoj vezi podeljeni su u dve kategorije: objektivne, koji su procesne prirode i kod kojih se kriterijumi učešća javljaju kao najznačajniji, i subjektivne, koji su ugovorne prirode i sporazum konkurenata je najvažniji oblik. Polazeći od otvorenosti sistema kao bitne karakteristike, u istraživanju je poseban značaj posvećen pitanju dinamičke ravnoteže, odnosno mehanizma održavanja i prilagođavanja unutar sistema pravila zaštite konkurencije. Zaključak je ovog rada je da modeli 'nameštanja postupka' i 'nameštanja ponude' zahtevaju primenu različitih pravila i kompleksnog korpusa pravnih mera, u smislu kombinovanja onih preventivne i kaznene prirode, kao i imovinskih i lično-pravnih sankcija i podrazumeva, u cilju delotvornosti i racionalnosti postupanja, specifičan redosled njihove implementacije, a to konsekventno znači i različite nivoe institucionalnog postupanja.