Capacities of local self-governments in Serbia for compliance with EU directives on public procurement

The Republic of Serbia is facing major challenges in the process of harmonization of its public procurement regulation with the current EU regulations. By signing the Stabilization and Association Agreement with the EU, Serbia devoted itself to harmonizing national legislation in this area with the EU acquis (asquiscommunautaire), as well as to applying these rules. The aim of this study is to determine the ability of local self-governments, as one of the most important parts of the state apparatus, to carry out procurement procedures in accordance with the rules of the European Union. For this purpose, a research was conducted in several pilot municipalities of different sizes and development levels. As a result, the research determined that local self-governments are to a large extent able to carry out procurement procedures in accordance to the rules defined by the EU Directives, but there is a need for further capacity building of the personnel, organization, and especially of the technical capacity, in order to ensure effective and transparent public procurements. The limitation of this study is the size of research sample, but also a very short period for the implementation of the new Serbian Law on Public Procurement. In the end of the study conclusions were made which can be applied in the practice of public procurement procedures of local self-governments, and therefore they are extremely useful for state authorities of the Republic of Serbia, notably for the Public procurement office.