The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the UK government are partnering on a program to improve public procurement in Bosnia and Herzegovina through strengthening the country’s Public Procurement Review Body (PPRB) with technical assistance and information technology solutions.

“This project, prepared in cooperation with the EBRD, is very important for the Public Procurement Review Body of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as the objective of the project is to improve the institutional capacity and good practices in the area of public procurement,” PPRB Chairperson Jelena Gotovac said in a press release. “This also represents an opportunity to improve knowledge and skills related to public procurement procedures.”

The project will help the PPRB develop a more efficient appeals process, adopt a compendium of legal complaint cases and pilot a digital complaint system to make complaints easier to access and more transparent.

“Public procurement is a well-known problem area,” Ambassador Edward Ferguson said in the release. “Through this project, we want to help address a big issue for potential investors in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is the way that complaints about public procurements are handled. The EBRD has a lot of experience in modernizing public procurement practices around the world and, by working closely with the PPRB, we hope to deliver significant improvements in speed and transparency.”