E-Procurement in Albania Berlin, December 2016

Electronic procedures

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• Currently, the use of e-procurement system for contracting

authorities and economic operators in Albania is not a challenge

anymore. It is rather a normal way of conducting procurement

procedures.

• At present, all the procurement procedures in Albania, including

small value purchases (less than 6200 $ per year) conducted

electronically.

• Likewise, since 2012 the electronic system is used for conducting

the first phase of concessions/ppp procedures (publication of

documents and submission of offers) while the offer evaluation is

still paper based.

Electronic procedures in e-Procurement System

Local

Open

Restricted

Negotiated With Notice

Request for Proposal

Consulting (first phase)

Design Contest (first phase)

Small Value Purchase

Concessions/PPP (first phase)

International

Open

Restricted

Negotiated With Notice

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Electronic procedures-Exceptions

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• The following procedures are exempted from the use of electronic

means:

Negotiation without prior notice of the contract;

Second phase of the procedures “Consulting Services” and

“Design Contest”;

Procurement procedures with a value under 700€ and those

conducted on emergency cases;

Procurement procedures “Purchase of electrical energy”.

Electronic System- Main features

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• The e-procurement system is established and can be accessedthrough the website of the Public Procurement Agencyhttps://www.app.gov.al

• PPA website is the only electronic portal in the country providing thee-procurement service.

• The registration on the system and the access of the relevantinformation regarding procurement procedures as well as the onlinesubmission of offers is free of charge.

• The role of the electronic system administrator has beendecentralized designating as such each contracting authority.

• The electronic system includes two separate databases; (i) theplatform for conducting e-procurement procedures, and (ii) theelectronic archive for closed/finalized/cancelled/suspendedprocedures for monitoring and auditing purposes.

E-Procurement Platform

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E-Procurement Platform

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E-procurement Platform-Statistics

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Statistic of awarded e-procurmet procedurs January-Decembre 2015

1 Statistic of awarded e-procurmet procedurs January-Decembre 2015 ALL $

2 Total number of published procedures 4,630 4,630

3 Total Limit Fund for published procedures 90,702,378,325 708,612,331

4 Total number of procedures that have continued 4,269 4,269

5 Total Limit Fund for procedures that have continued 70,811,023,577 553,211,122

6 Total Fund or procedures that have continued 64,324,508,777 502,535,225

7 Total number of awarded procedures 6,975 6,975

8 Total Limit Fund for published procedures 79,545,263,786 621,447,373

9 Total procedured fund 72,935,751,628 569,810,560

10 % of Procured fund towards Limit Fund 91.70% 91.70%

11 Total savings fund 6,609,512,158 51,636,814

12 % Saving fund towards limit fond 8.30% 8.30%

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E-procurement Platform-Statistics

Use of Hits, Visitors and Time e-procurement system in 2015:

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• The following type of information is published and publicallyavailable at the procurement portal: Legal and sublegal acts on public procurement, concessions/ppp and public

auctions procedures.

Procurement manuals for Contracting Authorities and Economic Operators.

Standard Tendering Documents.

The Bulletin of Public Notices as well as Contract Notices, Winner Notices, Signed contract notices and Small Value Purchases.

Information on excluded economic operators etc.

Annual Reports prepared by PPA.

• On the other hand the information regarding a specific procurementprocedure in process is restricted and can be accessed byeconomic operators and relevant Contracting Authority only.

• Likewise, all the information regarding archived procedures is alsorestricted and can be accessed by auditors only.

Electronic system- Access to Information

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• Contracting Authorities :

Procurement Unit Officers;

Members of the Evaluation Commission;

Auditing Officers

• Economic Operators:

International Economic Operators (register online)

Local Economic Operators automatic register through connection with National

Registration Center

• Commission of Public Procurement:

Auditing users

• State Supreme Audit:

Auditing Officers

• Public Procurement Agency:

Publishing Officer

Administrator

Electronic system-Users

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E-Procurement-Actors/Roles/Steps

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• Admin Officer: Prepares New Workspace & Contract Notice

• Publisher: Publishes Contract Notice & Call Documents

• Economic Operators: Submit Tender Proposal

• Opening Officers: Open Proposals & Notify Evaluators

• Evaluators: Evaluate Proposals & Notify Admin Officer

• Admin Officer: Prepares Winner ,Contract Award Notice & Archives Call

• Audit Officer: Audit Call in Archive

E-procurement -electronic procedure

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The e-opening of proposals is based on the following:

Once submitted/uploaded to the system the offers are confidential

(encrypted) and cannot be accessed/viewed by any person, even

by the economic operator itself. The operator can remove the

encrypted offer and submit a new one during this period but cannot

read and edit it in the system.

The contracting authority sets and publish the exact date and time

for opening the bids.

The bids are opened by at least 3 or more persons (always an odd

number) as established case by case by the responsible contracting

authority.

In order for the offers to be accessible all the designated persons

shall enter the system through their own user/password and

authorize the opening. Only in this moment the offer is decrypted.

E-Procurement-electronic opening of proposals

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From the opening of the offers untill the closing of the evaluation

process all the designated members of the evaluation commission

may access all the documents including the financial offer.

From the opening of the offers untill the closing of the evaluation

process all the economic operators who have submitted an offer is

notified automatically regarding the status of the process such as: (i)

closed for submission, (ii) opening for evaluation, (iii) closed

evaluation etc.

Once the evaluation is closed the system notifies automatically the

final classification and the reasons for disqualification/rejection of

the offer.

No other interested person, except for bidders (for their own offer)

and Evaluation Commission, has access on the above procedure.

E-Procurement-electronic opening of proposals (cont.)

Electronic Archive

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• The electronic archive is an important feature of the electronic system which

makes the functioning of the operational system easier because:

The archive database has been divided from the operational database

reducing, this way, substantially the amount of data in the working server .

The transfer of data from the operational database to the archive one is done

in real time.

The archive database, as the

operational database, is on line

and easily accessible (by auditors

only).

The archive database is a great

tool for the auditors wishing to

audit procurement procedures

conducted earlier which can be

found and accessed on the

archive.

E-procurement Benefits

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• The use of the electronic means on procurement procedures has the

following benefits:

Saves time and facilitates the work of Contracting Authorities and

Economic Operators;

Reduces the costs for both the Contracting Authorities and the

Economic Operators since all the tendering documents are prepared

and submitted online;

Increases transparency regarding the conduction of the procurement

procedures;

Reduces the corruptive practices since the submitted offers can be

accessed by Evaluation Committee members only and only at the

appointed date and time for opening.

E-procurement Initial Challenges

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• The establishment of a totally new platform for conducting public

procurement procedures was a great challenge for Albania due to the lack

of knowledge and lack of previous experience on this regard.

• Passing from a paper-based procedure to an electronic one needed first

and foremost to educate people (especially public officials) and change their

mentality and behavior towards this issue.

• PPA had to bear the burden of training and providing continuous technical

assistance to all the platform users in order to overcome all the technical

difficulties they encountered in the process.

E-procurement Future objectives

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In order to improve further the performance of the electronic system and at

the same time increase further the system monitoring and security a new

perception for the e-procurement system through the following actions is

needed:

Re-engineering of the data structure and improvement of the existing

system framework in the newest versions in order to increase the

performance of the e-procurement system and decrease as much as

possible the occurring incidents.

Adding of the electronic services in the e-Albania portal to increase

transparency and notify the users on all the published tenders.

Submitting of offers for small value procedures through mobile and

design of relevant applications for iOS and Android platforms .

Adding of missing functionalities which hinders the normal work

performance.

Adding “CPV codes” in e-procurement system.

E-procurement Future objectives(cont.)

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Designing and establishing a new archive system and infrastructure for

finalized procedures.

Designing Business Intelligence system for reporting and complex

analysis.

Designing of a testing infrastructure for methodical work during

interventions or developments.

Designing a Business Continuity Infrastructure within PPA premises.

Audit Vault System monitoring.

Automatization of forecast and realization registers.

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Thank you!Eng.Gjergji Moçka

Director of Information Technology and Publication

Gjergji.Mocka@app.gov.al

Eduard Ahmeti

General Director

Eduard.Ahmeti@app.gov.al

Public Procurement Agency

Albania