OREANDA-NEWS  On 26 November was announced, that Belarus’ President Alexander Lukashenko approved new state procurement procedures by his ordinance #618, the press service of the president reported.

Lukashenko abolished the complicated procedure of coordination of procurement contracts at various levels of state authorities and authorized heads of state agencies and directors of organizations to make decisions about procurement independently.

Lukashenko abolished interdepartmental commissions and review boards that used to make decisions regarding procurement and cancelled the requirement to have procurement decisions approved by superior authorities.

The ordinance specifies the notion of state procurement and preserves the possibility of centralized procurement.

The document defines the main types of state procurement mechanisms – a tender [open, closed, two-phase], request of price quotations, competitive list procedures and purchase from a single source as an alternative.

The list of commodities, services and operations that are not subject to tendering procedures has been adjusted.

The Finance Ministry will keep the register of state procurement agreements, the National Statistics Committee will keep statistical accounting of procurement contracts.

The document comes into effect two months after its publication. Procurement procedures launched before the new ordinance comes into effect will be completed under the existing regulations.