Applicability
Exclusions
Provisions
Claims

On February 14 2008 Parliament approved Law 9874/2008, which aims to establish procedural transparency and rules for public auctions of public property organized by a public entity.

Applicability

The law aplies when selling in public auction:

• shares (representing a contribution in kind) in limited liability companies or joint stock companies;
• consumer goods purchased with money from the state budget;
• obsolete goods;
• goods seized and confiscated by the authorities; and
• goods falling within the scope of specific laws.

In addition, the Council of Ministers may authorize the sale by public auction of other public property at the minister of economy's initiative.

Exclusions

The law excludes from public auction:

• objects with historical, national, scientific, cultural or archaeological value;
• public objects regulated by other legislation; 
• gold, silver and platinum coins;
• the sale for military use of guns, equipment, munitions, explosives, military materials and related services which are not in use by the armed services; 
• information that may endanger national security; and 
• objects that require particular safety measures, as determined by legislation.

Provisions

International treaties and convention provisions ratified by Albania will prevail if they conflict with the law.

The authority conducting the auction must describe in detail the object for sale and the amount, units and total price of the goods. The determination of value is based on the current monetary value, the market price being provided by the Institute of Statistics. The starting price must include related tax duties.

The law provides the forms of public auction; an open procedure, used for all public auctions, and a procedure for the selection of purchasers, used in cases where it is necessary to distinguish between a preliminary phase and a phase to determine the winning bidder. In addition, it allows for a negotiation procedure with prior publication of notification, to be used: (i) where all bids received using either of the first two procedures are invalid or otherwise fail to meet legal requirements; or (ii) the nature of the object does not allow for prior determination of price (eg, for the wholesale auction of goods that are near their expiry date or for the sale of fruit and vegetable products that may spoil).  

The authority evaluates and compares the value of the offers in order to determine the winning bid. Offers are listed from the highest down to the minimum selling price. The auction is won by the highest bid to fulfil all the criteria.

Claims

Any bidder may request an administrative review of the auction process if it believes that the authority’s decision breaches the law. The claim must be presented to the authority in writing within five working days of the alleged breach. The authority must suspend the auction process until a complete examination of the claim is undertaken and issue a decision within five days of receipt. If the authority does not examine the request within this period or rejects it, the bidder may present a written request to the public procurement agency within five days to proceed with the claim in accordance with the law, the Administrative Procedure Code and the rules of the public auction. The public procurement agency must reply in writing to the bidder within five days. If the dispute is not resolved, the bidder may bring a legal action before the Tirana District Court against the agency’s decision.

For further information please contact Marlina Panoti at Boga & Associates by telephone (+355 42 51 050) or by fax (+355 42 51 055) or by email (mpanoti@bogalaw.com).

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