Skopje, 7 December 2023 (MIA) - Public procurement has the highest corruption risk. It is necessary to build a long-term, sustainable prevention system that will not change as governments change, Deputy PM for Good Governance Policies Slavica Grkovska told annual regional conference "On the state of affairs and corruption in public procurement in the Western Balkans countries", held Thursday in light of International Anti-Corruption Day.

Deputy PM Grkovska said that regulations should be accompanied by prepared institutions with professionals in the field of public procurement and proper working conditions, in order to respond to the challenges they face, the Government said in a press release.

"One cannot predict everything in a law, one part is left to the consciousness and awareness of all stakeholders regarding the observance of the law and how they act," said Grkovska.

Guided by the necessity to strengthen the corruption indicators, she said a series of activities have been undertaken towards enhancing the alarming system within the Public Procurement Bureau over possible irregularities (red flags) in procurement procedures. Cooperation has been established with Italy's National Anti-Corruption Authority (ANAC), which has created an efficient system of corruption risk indicators in specific procurement procedures.

The event, organized by the Center for Civil Communications, included a presentation of the annual report on comparative evaluation of public procurement across the Western Balkans, developed by the coalition of civil society organizations in the region "Balkan Tender Watch".

Regarding the report, Grkovska said the state of affairs in North Macedonia is similar to other countries of the Western Balkans, and highlighted that knowledge sharing and seeking joint measures and mechanisms for prevention of corruptive elements in public procurement would have impact in the region.

"It is required to have a strong judicial system with integrity, so that every suspicion of abuse of public funds is investigated and processed. We cannot be successful unless this institutional chain is in place, but if only one link fails, the results will not come," said Grkovska.

The Deputy PM noted that the low number of reports and judgments related to bribery was owed to the citizens' distrust in institutions, especially in the judiciary, reads the press release.