Law on public procurement: 8 key innovations

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed the Law "On public procurement" on April 9, 2018.

The adopted law set to ensure openness and transparency of public procurement, the competition of entrepreneurs in this area.

The law defines five types of procurement procedures, two of which completely exclude the human factor when making decisions on public procurement. In other procurement procedures, transparency is ensured by publishing the necessary information on a special information portal.

For the first time, a type of procurement procedure, such as procurement from a single supplier, has been introduced in line with international standards.

Before the adoption of the law, this area was regulated by more than 30 regulatory legal acts, while there was a lack of integrity of the public procurement system, resulting in legal conflicts. The multi-stage harmonization and duplication of procedures created the preconditions for corruption and entailed considerable loss of time.

The law takes into account the existing experience of public procurement, as well as international practice, including the main provisions of the model legislation of the UN Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), the legislation of the European Union, the United States, the Russian Federation, Belarus, Kazakhstan and other countries.

The main innovations of the law:

- Introduction of two different categories of government customers – "budget" and "corporate”;

- The National Agency for project management under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan determined as the authorized body in the field of public procurement. Previously, the authorized body in the field of public procurement was absent;

- Introduction of a special information portal for all types of public procurement. In the e-shop and auction the winner is chosen automatically by the electronic system;

- All types of goods (works, services), which do not have specific requirements, are purchased through an e-shop. The limit of budget of customers – up to 25 MW, but not more than 2,500 MW per year, for corporate customers – not more than 250 MW.;

- Competitive bidding applies to all types of goods (works, services) that meet the established criteria. Previously, the mechanism of competitive bidding acted only in the field of capital construction;

- Establishment of soums limits for bidding: for budget customers - more than 6 thousand MW, for corporate customers – over 25 thousand MW.;

- Monitoring and control of procurement procedures are regulated;

- The Complaints Board reviews complaints on all types of purchases.