5) Public Procurement

Content of Chapter

In addition to the general principles on transparency, equal-treatment, free competition, non-discrimination,  EU acquis on public procurement covers implementations  of common specific procedures on public works  contracts, public supply contracts and public service contracts that are made by public institutions in the European Union and the rules on complaint and investigation.

Main instruments of EU public procurement legislation are as follows:

- Directive 2014/24/EU on public procurement,

- Directive 2014/25/EU on procurement by entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services sectors (utilities),

- Directive 89/665/EEC and Directive 92/13/EEC on review and remedy procedures (These two directives have both been significantly amended by a Directive 2007/66/EC)

- Directive 2014/23/EU on concessions,

- Directive 2009/81/EU on the coordination of procedures for the award of certain works contracts, supply contracts and service contracts by contracting authorities or entities in the fields of defence and security.

Moreover, legal framework including basic provisions of Treaty establishing European Community such as transparency, equal treatment, competition public-private partnerships and concessions must be in place in member states.

The Explanatory Screening Meeting of Public Procurement Chapter was held on 7 November 2005 and the Comprehensive Screening Meeting was held on 28 November 2005. Three opening benchmarks are notified for opening of the chapter to negotiations with a letter dated 17 May 2006.

Opening Benchmarks

1. Türkiye tasks an organisation for procurement with guaranteeing a coherent policy during the pre-accession period in all areas related to public procurement and with steering its implementation, in order to facilitate the process of alignment to the acquis and to facilitate the future negotiations on the chapter;

2. Türkiye presents to the Commission its comprehensive strategy, which should include all reforms necessary in terms of legislative alignment and institutional capacity-building in order to comply with the procurement acquis, with time-schedules and milestones. This strategy would cover all aspects and in particular:

-Alignment of the legislation for public contracts and concessions with the procurement directives, ensuring at the same time coherence of any further legislative initiative on public-private partnerships with the transposed acquis;

-Alignment of the legislation on review procedures with the remedies directives;

-Strengthening of administrative capacities at all levels including review bodies and enforcement mechanisms;

-Detailed action plan for the elimination of domestic preferences and other discriminatory practices other than price preferences, substantiated by an economic and statistical analysis, including a complete list of existing direct and indirect preferences, and time-schedules with milestones for their phasing-out.

This strategy should be updated and supplemented, in particular as regards price preferences, in the light of the outcome of negotiations foreseen under Article 48 of Decision 1/95 of the EC-Türkiye Association Council to extend the Customs Union to public procurement.

3. Türkiye, as a first step, puts into force amendments to the scope of its legislation in order to ensure that it covers all relevant areas and fits with the scope of the classical and utilities directives as regards contracting authorities and entities as well as contracts covered, and repeals accordingly all exemptions to the procurement regime contained in various specific laws.

Progress achieved

Ministry of Finance is the coordinator institution in this field. This assignment is legally based on the Law No. 5917, dated 25 June 2009, amending the Decree Law No. 178 on Organization and Duties of the Ministry of Finance. In order to perform the duties of public procurement policy development and coordination, Department of Public Procurement Coordination has been established under the Ministry of Finance-General Directorate of Budget and Fiscal Control in 2009.

Within the framework of the second benchmark, the first draft of the strategy has been prepared and submitted to the Commission.

Regarding the third opening benchmark, which is the compliance of Turkish public procurement legislation to the EU legislation in terms of scope and exemptions, preparations are being carried out.

In the context of cooperation between Ministry of Finance and OECD-SIGMA, many workshops have been organised since 2010.

Electronic Public Procurement Platform (EKAP) operates as of 1 September 2010. The Public Procurement Authority aims to transfer all tendering procedures from identification of needs to signing of contracts into digital medium. EKAP is the most important tool for the realization of this aim. With EKAP, tendering processes are realized in more compliance with the legislation and more rapidly and effectively. Thus, a saving of up to 20% is secured in the costs regarding the tendering process. Considering the aim of the European Union to make all public procurement on electronic medium until 2016, EKAP application constitutes an important step for our country. The Prime Ministry selected EKAP as one of the most strategic 11 e-government projects in Türkiye. Turkish Standards Institute has accredited the services carried out through EKAP and confidentiality, integrity and accessibility of compiled information as compliant with data security standard. 

Related DG in the European Commission

DG Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship & SMEs is responsible for supervision of implementation of a European legal framework in the public procurement field.

For further information:

http://ec.europa.eu/growth/single-market/public-procurement/index_en.htm

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