Ministry of Finance announces a competition for the new composition of the Commission for the protection of rights in public procurement

Montenegro’s Ministry of Finance has announced a public call for the selection of the chair and six members of the Commission for the protection of rights in public procurement procedures, as Vijesti reports. The public call will last 15 days.

The Commission is one of the key bodies for controlling legality in procedures where the state and other public institutions spend money through the procurement of goods, works and services. It is an independent institution, responsible for the protection of rights in public procurements and in public-private partnership contracts, while state bodies conduct the procedures through the Montenegrin electronic public procurement system (CeJN).

Currently the chair of the Commission is Rade Tabaš, while the members are Nikola Golubović, Danilo Marković, Melida Suljević, Jelena Peković, Marina Mitrović and Dušan Marković. For the chair, a lawyer with at least five years of work experience is required, of which at least three in the field of public procurement. For two of the members, the bar exam and three years of work experience are required (or the exam plus at least three years in procurement); for two others, education level VII1, a law degree, the exam for work in state bodies and two years of experience in procurement are required; while for the other two, level VII1, two years of experience, of which at least one year in procurement, plus the exam for state bodies.

According to last year’s report, which is currently in parliamentary procedure, the Commission resolved 364 cases, while 21 remained unresolved; proceedings were initiated before the Administrative Court against 15 percent of the decisions. Of the 337 resolved appeal cases, 37 were appeals against the tender documentation, 8 against the documentation and its changes, 253 against the decision on the selection of the most favourable bid, 2 against exclusion from the procedure, 35 against the annulment of the procedure, and one each against the refusal to repeat the procedure and against a notice.

The European Commission, in its 2025 progress report for Montenegro, assessed that appeal procedures in public procurement are in line with EU standards and practice, that there are no considerable delays in handling and resolving appeals, and that the system of legal remedies is effective.