Riinvest Institute 2014

parties. Also, the contract notices are not always 
published on the PPRC web. The current legislation 
ensures that the process must be transparent, how-
ever, there is a lack of mechanisms that ensure easy 
access or one has to work through the Review Bod-
45 RIINVEST 2012, “Improving Transparency and Governance of 
public funds in Kosovo”
ies or courts. Electronic procurement solves many 
of these issues. The instructions for application are 
embedded in the system and troubleshooting in the 
application process becomes less costly. There is also 
less room for the procurement officials to illegitimate-
ly favor certain applicants by giving information not 
available to all. Electronic auctioning can also be used 
as a way to increase transparency and get the best 
value for taxpayer money. Electronic procurement 
makes the entire process more transparent by mak-
ing information more readily accessible and leaving 
less discretion to procurement officials. It also makes 
it more efficient, as a European Commission report
46
finds “Public entities that have already implemented 
e-procurement report savings of between 5% and 
20% of their procurement expenditure”.
Unclear guidelines on the procurement process are 
another source of uncertainty that businesses face in 
bidding for public funds and holding accountable the 
procuring agency for fair treatment. Riinvest study
47
finds that “companies complain that tendering pro-
cedures and paperwork is very complicated and 
sometimes they get disqualified due to non-com-
pliance with the requirements”. The ambiguity on 
requirements makes the whole process less trans-
parent as illegitimately favored companies are given 
inside information which other bidders do not have 
access to. In light of this, Civil Society Organizations 
have advocated for more spending in making sure the 
public officials are properly trained and the informa-