A critical analysis of some important novelties in the law on public procurements

Predmet rada su normativne novine uvedene u tekst Zakona o javnoj nabavi (ZOJN). Autor podvrgava kritičkoj analizi novelirane institute ZOJN-a te ih smješta u normativni kontekst određen prijašnjom verzijom zakonskog teksta odnosno europskim zakonodavstvom. Naposljetku, ocjenjuje se smisao i značenje izmjena i dopu na ZOJN-a.The manner of codification of public procurement procedures is undoubtedly very important, which explains the interest created by each legislative intervention in the relevant regulations. The Law on Public Procurements (LPP) has been seriously and comprehensively revised for the first time (Official Gazette, No. 92/05). The objectives of the revision are the following: nomotechnical improvement of the LPP and its harmonisation with the new EU regulations in that area. The comprehensive revision has thoroughly changed the essential provisions of the LPP. The changes refer to new terminology (Art. 2 of the LPP), different definition of the entities bound by the Law (Articles 4 and 5), different list of exemptive clauses (Art. 6), deformalisation of prerequisites for implementation of the negotiation variety of public procurement procedure (Articles 12 and 13), and, finally, considerable modifications in the system of legal protection (Articles 13 and 70-71). The revision has fulfilled its purpose to a certain extent; however, it cannot be said that all the objectives have been achieved. The revised LPP is still not completely harmonised with the European legislature. Furthermore, the text still contains unacceptable normative deficiencies that have considerable negative impact on legal position of the parties to public procurement procedures. It is rather obvious that the legislator favours the private interest at the expense of the public. Normative examples that corroborate this are numerous: for example, the contractualisation of legal terminology and deformalisation of the procedure to such an extent that the protection of public interest becomes rather difficult. Moreover, European legislation has been translated literally, without taking into consideration national legal system. It has resulted in inconsistent legal norms the will be rather difficult to implement. This text is written with the intention of pointing out to the normative sources of possible problems, which might contribute to avoid them as often as possible