European Twinning project successfully completed

The BBG was involved as the project manager for a so-called European “Twinning Project“ with the title "Strengthening public procurement in Georgia".

The EU-funded Twinning Project on “Strengthening Public Procurement Practices in Georgia”, with a budget of 1.4 million EUR provided by the European Neighbourhood Instrument (ENI), was launched in the beginning of 2019 and ended on 31 March, 2021. The project was implemented, the Austrian Federal Procurement Agency (BBG) as the Project Lead Institution and its Junior Partner National Review Commission of Slovenia (DKOM). The State Procurement Agency of Georgia (SPA) was the direct Beneficiary of the project.

After more than two years of intensive joint work and very good cooperation, the project team and the project partners have achieved great results:

  • The twinning project team put an enormous effort to strengthening institutional and administrative capacities in the beneficiary country. This included special training for SPA staff, as well as events and workshops for representatives of the media, the judiciary and the executive, and senior officials directly involved in public procurement reform in Georgia.
     
  • Furthermore, the project significantly contributed to the detailed revision and draft of the new primary public procurement legislation in Georgia. Project experts supported the SPA in drafting secondary legislation deriving from the draft Public Procurement Law. The aim was to bring Georgian legislation closer to EU legislation and best practices.
     
  • The third major contribution of the project team was the support in improving the remedy system within the national public procurement system in line with the best practices of the different EU member states. The project experts delivered a number of specific outputs concerning draft regulations, comparative analyses, guidelines and reports, and supported the implementation of a new and independent Review Body, which started its work in January 2021.

Additionally, a study visit to Austria was organised and high level delegates exchanged experiences and discussed practical challenges with the various Austrian state institutions such as Federal Ministry of Defence, Federal Chancellery, Federal Ministry of Finance, Federal Administrative Court, Austrian Court of Audit and Federation of Austrian Industries.

Due to the global pandemic situation, the project had to switch to a remote setting from March 2020 onwards. Since the COVID-19-related restrictions were not completely lifted until the end of the project, EU Experts were unable to travel to the beneficiary country. Nevertheless, the project team was able to implement all crucial activities together with the Beneficiary. Ultimately, the Project Closing Event was conducted virtually on 31 March 2021.

For more information visit www.bmeia.gv.at/europa-aussenpolitik/europapolitik/eu-twinning/.