On the 12th of April, 2013, Civic Initiatives (CI) organized a consultative meeting, regarding the new Public procurement law, between representatives of organizations and institutions at the Human Rights House. According to CI, the implementation of this law can hamper CSOs to provide social, educational and other services, which can greatly endanger their work and affect the users of their services. The new law introduced an obligation to obtain a banking guarantee for pre-financing and for participation in tenders above 5 million RSD, which discriminates in advance civil society organizations and all other legal entities which do not own property or any other financial guarantees.
Representatives from the Office for Cooperation with Civil Society, the Team for Social Inclusion, Poverty Reduction, and the Office for European Integration attended the meeting and provided support to the initiative in terms of connecting civil society with institutions authorized to implement the law in order to find a sustainable solution and establish better communication. For more information on the meeting visit the CI website.