THE REPUBLIC OF TURKEY

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Public Procurement Legislative

Experiences in Turkey

7th IPA Regional Public Procurement Conference

9 – 10 September 2014 Vlora, Albania

ERKAN OZDEMIR

Public Procurement Specialist

Regulation Department

Public Procurement Authority erkanozdemir@kik.gov.tr

Turkey-EU Relations on

Public Procurement

TURKEY-EU negotiations for accession to full membership

started on 3 October 2005.

The accession negotiations are conducted chapter by

chapter and the public procurement is taking place as the 5th

chapter among 35 chapters.

Under Public Procurement chapter two screening meetings

were held in Brussels on 7 November 2005 and 28

November 2005. Following the screening meetings a

screening report was issued by the EU Commission and 3

opening criteria were stated through a letter send by

Austria’s presidency (May 2006).

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Three opening benchmarks can be summarized as:

1-Tasking an institution for the coordination of legal arangments in the area of public procurement in order to guaranteeing a coherent policy during the pre-accession period.

2-Preparation of a strategy paper which should include the time-schedules and stages with regard to the full compliance of the public procurement legislation and the establishment of the necessary administrative capacity

3-The alignment of the national legislation with the EU acquis in ‘scope, definitions and exceptions’.

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Turkey-EU Relations on

Public Procurement

Through an amendment to the legislation for the

roles and responsibilities of

the Ministry of Finance, the MoF

has been designated as the coordinator body

for the policy issues related to

public procurement. Thus the first

opening criterion was fulfilled.

First and second draft

strategy paper and an action plan has been prepared and

submitted to EU Commission for

taking its opinion in 2009

and 2010. Strategy paper has not been finalized yet.

In order to enhance

alignment with the acquis in terms of scope, exclusions,

definitions and thresholds,

concrete steps will be taken in the process of

alingment.

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Turkey-EU Relations on

Public Procurement

Historical Background and Reform in

Public Procurement

In the last decade, in order to align its public procurement

legislation with the EU, Turkey has made extensive and

comprehensive reforms and “Public Procurement Law”,

(PPL, Law no:4734) and “Public Procurement Contracts

Law” (PPCL, Law no:4735) were adopted by the

Parliament on 4 January 2002 and both Laws came into

effect as of 1 January 2003.

The PPL No: 4734 governs the rules and principles of the

new public procurement system, while PPCL No: 4735

establishes the principles and procedures related to

making and implementing public procurement contracts.

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Historical Background and Reform in

Public Procurement (cont.)

In the following period, these two laws (PPL and PPCL)

were amended several times in order to increase

transparency and competition in public tenders, as well as

to reflect new legal initiatives at the EU level.

The most important amendments to the PPL resulted from

efforts to implement a number of the key provisions of the

EC Directive 2004/18/EC and the introduction of the

concepts of framework agreements, dynamic purchasing

system, electronic auction, prior information notice,

standstill period and electronic notification to Turkish

public procurement legislation.

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Historical Background and Reform

in Public Procurement (cont.)

Since March 2011 many stages of the public procurement

process such as preparing the tender documents and contract

notices, downloading of tender documents and submission of

contract award information has been conducted electronically over

the Electronic Public Procurement Platform (EPPP) established by

the PPA in September 2010.

EPPP is one of the most important e-government applications with

over 46.000 registered economic operators, 28.000 registered

contracting authorities and 465.000 registered users is being

continuously improved.

At present, for individual contracts awarded through framework

agreements, all procurement procedures including the electronic

submission and electronic evaluation stages, can be done in

paperless electronic environment.

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Historical Background and Reform in

Public Procurement (cont.)

Along with this reform in the legal framework, the

institutional framework of the public procurement sector

has also been changed significantly. A financially and

administratively autonomous regulatory body, namely the

Public Procurement Authority (PPA) had been established

to regulate and monitor the public procurement field.

These new arrangements constituted a major shift in the

functionality of the public procurement system of Turkey.

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Scope and the Aim of the PPL No: 4734

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At present, the scope of the PPL No: 4734 is as wide as to

cover procurements, which amounts to approximately 30 billion € (in year 2013), by all kinds of public entities and public economic enterprises as well as their specified partnerships governed by public law, or under public control or using public funds.

PPL aims;

to cover a wide range of public agencies spending public money,

to regulate the public procurement sector through the uniform rules

and principles,

to comply with international standards and rules,

to ensure fundamental principles on transparency, competition, equal

treatment, accountability and public supervision.

Tender procedures 10

PROCEDURES

OPEN

PROCEDURE

All suppliers who

respond to a contract

notice may submit

a tender

RESTRICTED

PROCEDURE

Only those suppliers

who have been selected

and invited following a

pre-qualification procedure

may submit tenders

NEGOTIATED

PROCEDURE

1) With publication of a

contract notice

2) Without publication of a

contract notice

Direct purchasing (art. 22)

Design contest (art. 23)

Special procedure for procurement of consultancy services

(art. 48-52)

Awarding criteria

The PPL provides two possible award criteria for the selection of the best offer (economically most

advantageous tender)

The lowest price only

Price and other factors relating to the subject matter of contract, such as operation and maintenance costs, cost-effectiveness, productivity, quality, and technical merit.

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Further Legislative Initiatives (Utilities

Sector)

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Today, Turkish legislation on the award of public contracts

is, to a large extent, compatible with the EU requirements.

However, there is no specific unified legislation in Turkey coordinating the rules and principles relating to the utilities sector and concessions/PPP’s.

Public utilities contracts are currently partially covered by

the PPL.

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Article 47 of the Turkish Constitution provides that concessions

may only be granted to the extent regulated by law. Therefore

concessions may be granted only if a law is enacted for the

grant of such concession.

In Turkey there is no single law that coordinates the rules and

principles relating Concessions/PPPs. They are regulated by

several sector specific laws.

For example concessions related to construction, maintenance

and operation of highway are governed by law No 3465

adopted in 1998 and the construction and renovation of

integrated health facilities through the public private partnership

(“PPP”) are governed by Law No 6428 adopted in 2013.

Further Legislative Initiatives

(Concessions/PPPs)

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Turkey intends to make some new legislative

improvements and amendments with regard to utilities,

concessions/PPPs that will take place in the forthcoming

years, in order to be in full compliance with the EU public

procurement system. In this context, the Ministry of

Finance, PPA and other related institutions will work

closely with EU partners.

Further Legislative Initiatives

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THANK YOU FOR YOUR

ATTENTION