More than half of suppliers are satisfied with the public procurement system in Serbia, although the number of those who rate it positively is declining, while one in five identifies the risk of corruption as the key problem.
A third of citizens, as well as the majority of contracting authorities, also consider the system to be good, according to new research by NALED on perceptions of public procurement in Serbia.
The results of the research, conducted as part of the project “More Efficient Public Procurement and Sustainable Supply Chains for Good Governance”, supported by the Government of Sweden, show that two fifths of citizens are familiar with the public procurement system, while 60% do not believe that procedures are carried out fairly and transparently. At the same time, trust in non-governmental organisations is growing, and they are now seen as the most reliable source of information by a third of citizens.
“According to the latest available data for 2024, approximately nine billion euros were spent through public procurement, which tells us that it is not only an important instrument for ensuring quality public services, but also a powerful tool for supporting economic development, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises, with which 75% of the total number of contracts were concluded. It is therefore important to increase competition, but also to continue working on expanding green procurement, whose share in 2024 doubled compared with the previous year,” said Ana Ilić, Director of the Good Governance and Project Department at NALED, at the presentation of the research.
Nemanja Nenadić, Programme Director of Transparency Serbia, emphasised that more companies need to be encouraged to participate in public procurement and to report irregularities.
“In assessing oversight, 92% of citizens called for strict control. Despite all other preventive mechanisms, it is quite certain that without adequate oversight the system cannot be expected to function. The number of public procurement procedures subject to control in our country is not adequate. Above all, there is an insufficient number included in the monitoring of relevant institutions, a small number of bidders, and audits by the State Audit Institution that come too late,” said Nenadić.
According to the research findings, all three groups of respondents agree that priority should always be given to quality when selecting bids, and that price should not be the sole criterion for awarding contracts. Healthcare is identified as the sector that should receive the most investment, followed by education and infrastructure.
Boštjan Ferk, Director of the Institute for Public-Private Partnership in Slovenia, believes that competition has declined in their countries and that the average number of bids in Serbia is now close to the situation in Slovenia, which is why efforts are needed to build trust in the system.
“We will achieve this by strengthening independent anti-corruption bodies, developing systems to monitor competition so that we can learn from past mistakes, standardising and digitalising procedures, publishing annual procurement plans, and providing continuous training for all participants in the system,” said Ferk.
Ann-Charlotte Malm, Head of Development Cooperation at the Embassy of the Kingdom of Sweden, pointed out that the public procurement system in Sweden is highly decentralised, with around 3,700 contracting authorities, that it is transparent, and that it encourages competition.
“This has encouraged small and medium-sized enterprises to get involved, motivated them to innovate in order to win contracts, and strengthened entire sectors such as clean technologies, digital services and construction,” Malm concluded.
(Biznis&Finansije, 27.03.2026)
https://bif.rs/2026/03/istrazivanje-koliko-su-gradjani-i-sami-ponudjaci-zadovoljni-javnim-nabavkama/