Foreign investors are not too happy about the government failing to agree on the revision of the Public Procurement Act, as it was supposed to make e-auctions compulsory for most public tenders.
Now, because the government did not like the proposal of the Office of Public Procurement (UVO), the matter has been deferred until the middle of next year so the government can produce a complex revision of the law.
Some chambers of commerce are up in arms, though, as they were expecting the government to crack down on corruption firmly, which electronic tenders would help achieve. Head of the Slovak-Austrian Chamber of Commerce, Maria Berithova, announced that this sends out a negative signal to Austrian and German investors.
The introduction of obligatory electronic auctions for tenders would greatly reduce space for corruption, and so investors were relying on the change to improve the business environment overall.