SERBIA: Procurement Procedures During the State of Emergency

Public Procurement Administration has advised the contracting authorities not to initiate new public procurement procedures while the Decision on Declaration of a State of Emergency is still in force (“RS Official Gazette”, No 29/20).

If during the state of emergency, the contracting authorities are unable to complete the already initiated procedures in line with the Law on Public Procurement (LPP), such procedures may be cancelled. A state of emergency is deemed to be, in the sense of Art 109, Para 2 of the LPN, an objective and provable reason for cancelling public procurement procedure, since it could not have been foreseen at the time of initiation of the procedure, and renders completion of the initiated procedure considerably difficult. Public Procurement Administration notes that the cancelled procedures may be reinitiated once the state of emergency is lifted.

However, if the public procurement procedure is necessary and urgent in spite of the state of emergency, the conduct of the procedure must fully comply with the LPP, including compliance with the deadlines for the submission of bids, rules for opening of bids, and the contracting authority must in particular give consideration to whether or not the public procurement contract will be capable of being implemented during the state of emergency.

As a result of lifting the state of emergency in the Republic of Serbia on 6 May 2020, this Decision is no longer effective. Find out more here