By the Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the amendments were made to the application of the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan “On Amendments to the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan“ On Public Procurement ”No. 330-VIQD of May 27, 2021, and Presidential Decree“ On Application of the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan “On Public Procurement” No. 668 of January 29, 2002, and to the “Regulations on the Public Procurement Single Web Portal” approved by the Decree No. 647 dated April 16, 2019.

Commenting on the Decree, head of the department of the CAERC Rashad Huseynov stated that according to changes to the legislation were made regarding pre-determination of qualification of consignors (contractors), e-procurement, coordination of procurement methods, tender commission, tender participation fee, the opening of bids, rejection of bids, evaluation of bids, obtaining permits and approvals, approval of the contract by higher authority bodies, term of ensuring procurement contracts implementation, receipt of delivery and acceptance acts, request for proposals, electronic procurement announcement (invitation), change of contract terms. According to his words, “In general, the accepted changes will lead to more efficient use of public funds in procurement. At the same time, these changes will increase transparency in public procurement and create a level playing field for all consignors (contractors). A more efficient public procurement system is one of the significant factors in achieving the goals of sustainable economic development.

If we review the statistics on public procurement of the previous period, we can see that in 2020, the volume of public procurement, carried out by government agencies through tenders and quotation requests, increased by 14.8 percent compared to 2019 and amounted to 6.6 billion manats. During that period, the number of procurement procedures decreased by 2254 units or 19.7 percent. The share of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in procurement were more than 90 percent

Being a part of complex business reforms, implemented in the country, adopted amendments are expected to result in improvement of the country’s position in international rankings, especially in the Doing Business report. As a result, it will positively affect the flow of direct foreign investments to our country.

Last year, e-procurement (through the e-procurement portal) amounted to 930 million manats, which is 14% of total procurement. The new changes will increase the share of public procurement carried out through a single web portal”.