Teymour Aliyev

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 14 (2019), Issue 1, Page 55 - 62

The Republic of Azerbaijan, as a young member of the Council of Europe, which ratified and implemented to its legislation the provisions of numerous conventions against corruption as well as other international agreements on combating transnational crimes, money laundering and other corruption-related misconduct, and by being a developing country and benefiting from loans and other funds provided by the World Bank Group (WBG), should substantially upgrade its anti-corruption legislation and especially in the procurement area in order to keep pace with fast changing international standards. Whilst the concept of corruption may be more or less universal both in the national legislation and international normative documents, the notions of fraud and other ‘corruption-related’ misbehaviour in laws of Azerbaijan should be clearly defined and advanced to match the definitions used by the WBG and other multilateral development banks. And when they are legibly defined, the grounds for the exclusion and debarment of bidders and contractors committing such misconduct and sanctions should be broadened and differentiated with an eye to ensure fairness of the procurement process and harmonization with regulations applied internationally. In this work the terms of corruption, forgery, fraud and coercion according to the national legislation of Azerbaijan and the WBG standards have been analysed and compared. Further, in order to demonstrate legal shortages and loopholes at the national level, the legal grounds for the exclusion and debarment of bidders committing corruption-related acts at procurement procedures in Azerbaijan and its champion company SOCAR, and the type of applicable sanctions, with comparison to the provisions of the suspension and debarment standards employed by the WBG, have been described. Finally, the author has tried to offer proposals on the elimination of regulatory gaps for the purpose of ensuring the effectiveness and fairness of procurement-related exclusion and debarment process in Azerbaijan. Keywords: Corruption-related Misconduct; Sanctions; Exclusion; Debarment; World Bank Group; Procurement legislation.

Simion-Adrian Purza

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 13 (2018), Issue 4, Page 257 - 269

This article provides a contextual overview of the various intergovernmental instruments and mechanisms that define EU defence and security cooperation in general and defence procurement in particular. The main hypothesis is that the legal substance pertaining to EU defence procurement has emerged from the political and strategic level of decision and has been progressively imbedded into various layers of EU policy-making, through a slow but steady trickle-down effect. The article has a twofold approach, providing a conceptual analysis of the main driving forces behind defence cooperation at EU level, along with an attempt to determine the extent to which the European Defence Agency has contributed to the evolution of the EU framework in this field, by promoting coordination mechanisms that have ultimately evolved into concrete regulatory solutions for defence procurement. Keywords: EU defence procurement; European Defence Agency; Intergovernmental cooperation; EU security integration; Directive 2009/81/EC; Code of Conduct.

Marco Ceruti

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 13 (2018), Issue 3, Page 234 - 240

Branimir Blagojevic

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 13 (2018), Issue 3, Page 245 - 251

Beata Faracik

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 13 (2018), Issue 3, Page 184 - 197

Despite many efforts being put in the recent years into the reform of the public procurement legislation both at the European and national level in Poland, the increase in the use of sustainable public procurement is disproportionally low. This article looks therefore at the non-legal barriers that affect the use of the sustainable public procurement (including, although not exclusively social clauses, green clauses), based on the research conducted in Poland. It concludes with suggestions of possible solutions and role of non-state actors in stimulating the use of Sustainable Public Procurement. Keywords: Sustainable public procurement; Social clauses; Non-legal barriers; Human rights; Poland.

Augustine Arimoro

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 13 (2018), Issue 3, Page 214 - 228

Huge infrastructure gaps in many countries in the face of budget deficits as well as the need to tap into private sector capital and management expertise are the main reasons why governments across the world adopt the public-private partnership (PPP) model of infrastructure procurement. The first structured PPP arrangement in South Africa dates to 1997 and since then, South Africa has maintained a leading position in PPP administration and regulation in sub-Saharan Africa. As such, the model in South Africa can serve as a template for other countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The paper discusses the legal and regulatory framework for PPP in the country and recommends that the process in South Africa be made simpler and transparent to encourage more interests from both foreign and domestic investors. Keywords: PPP Framework; Infrastructure; Investment; Investor; Public Procurement.

Wojciech Hartung, Katarzyna Kuźma

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 13 (2018), Issue 3, Page 171 - 183

This article discusses the issue of in-house procurement under Polish regulations and how they are applied by local authorities. The authors focus on special conditions in national provisions additional to those provided for in Directive 2014/24/EU. The Polish legislator allows the award of public contracts in a negotiated procedure without publication (single source procurement) among other differences. Polish regulations provide for the performance of local authority tasks via local authority acts. The authors analyse the relationship between public procurement and competition law with regard to the position of local authorities as entities playing a key role in organising public services markets; in Poland, local authorities, including municipalities, have the status of ‘undertaking’ when organising the performance of public services. What has been observed on the market is the tendency for municipal companies to use the privilege created for them in in-house procurement regulations to encroach on a market that is not related to the tasks of their owner and compete with private operators. EU law sets some limits on in-house procurement but does not in itself guarantee uniform application of this modality, leaving a great deal of freedom to Member States. Keywords: Self-governance; In-house procurement; Competition principles; National regulations.

Ragnhild Lunner

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 13 (2018), Issue 3, Page 198 - 206

The increased focus on sustainability in public procurement is reflected in the revised EU public procurement directives from 2014. However, even though the EU lawmakers have underlined the importance of enabling smart, inclusive and sustainable growth, and aspired to provide a tool box for contract authorities who would like to do so, the lack of clear guidance may lead to the scope of action not being used. It may even impede contracting authorities from taking human rights issues and sustainable development into account when procuring goods, services and works. This article analyses some of the developments and innovations in the public procurement Directive 2014/24/EU, hereunder technical specifications, life-cycle costing and exclusion, with the aim of commenting on obstacles and opportunities with regards to promoting human rights through the public procurement process. Keywords: Public procurement; Human rights; Life-cycle cost; Technical specifications; Fair trade

Andrea Castelli

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 13 (2018), Issue 3, Page 207 - 213

In the last decade, the Smart Cities debate has been characterized by a continuous and significant development, giving rise to a wide range of definitions with the purpose of identifying the exact perimeter of the phenomenon. This included determining the processes needed to transform an urban agglomeration into a ‘smart’ city through the development of new technologies and innovation with a social purpose. With the intent of pursuing those targets and creating a model of organization designed to evaluate problems linked to the environmental protection and commercial evolution (and, as a result, to increase the quality of life of people that live in it), the EU introduced a new plan of development (the Europe 2020 program) encouraging public administrations to extend the use of instruments that were already part of the European Union legal system (like the Pre-commercial Procurement, a kind of public-private partnership) and to test new ones, like innovation partnership, introduced by Directive 2014/24/EU on public procurement. This paper aims at analysing the impact of innovation partnership in the European countries, with particular reference to Italy, considering also a comparative perspective between different approaches on the evolution and development of Smart Cities. Keywords: Public procurement; Europe 2020 Strategy; Directive 2014/24/EU; Innovation partnership; Smart Cities

Zbigniew Raczkiewicz

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 13 (2018), Issue 3, Page 229 - 233