In response to recent media coverage related to procurement processes UNDP would like to state the following:

UNDP is fully committed to supporting Bosnia and Herzegovina in its time of need while managing our donors' and partners' funds with the utmost professionalism and diligence.

UNDP uses a range of procurement modalities, depending on the type of services and goods required, their respective value, and the request's exigency. Procurement procedures are designed and implemented according to principles of the best value for money, fairness, integrity, competitiveness, and transparency. Detailed procurement regulations and procedures are available to the public online. (https://popp.undp.org/SitePages/POPPRoot.aspx)  

The specifications and eligibility criteria related to COVID-19 procurement were prepared in consultation with end-users/beneficiaries (respective ministries at all administrative levels and health institutions) and relevant World Health Organization experts and UNDP experts in health procurement.  Among others, eligibility criteria depended also on the category of the medical items to be procured. To expedite the response to COVID-19 and save lives, UNDP developed corporate COVID-19 Special Procurement Measures that allowed for some flexibility to fast-track urgent actions, including delivery time as one of the criteria, thus ensuring that procurement tenders for some of the medical supplies and goods of high exigency were conducted in the shortest possible time.

No bid-submission deadlines were less than 48 hours and all were implemented fully in line with UNDP’s established procedures, one of which is direct contracting. The value of contracts directly awarded in line with the UNDP Rules and Regulations was valued at under $2 million or less than 5% of the overall procurement conducted. In all these cases, “value for money” was ensured as a key principle and many such contracts were awarded to previously successful bidders for the same materials to urgently meet the increasing demand for supplies.

The names of  selected bidders and values of the contracts related to COVID-19 procurement in 2020, including direct contracts, are publicly available at UNDP Transparency Portal [https://open.undp.org/projects/00126570]. The open data portal draws data directly from UNDP’s systems and cannot be modified by the country offices. We thanked the correspondent for pointing out earlier this week that not all of the data was visible. The data was indeed cut off due to an unfortunate technical glitch in the data presentation. Our colleagues at headquarters, who manage the data, resolved the issue immediately.

In line with its procurement rules, UNDP notifies unsuccessful bidders on the outcome of a procurement action only if their offers were technically compliant (but they were underbid). Other companies can obtain access to information on the status of their offer upon request. In line with rules in place to protect the integrity of the bidding process, UNDP does not, however, provide this information to a third party. Individual companies are under no obligation from UNDP to withhold information on their bids, but standard business practice is not to reveal bidding information to competitors.

UNDP takes all allegations about possible wrongdoing seriously. Anyone, including UNDP staff, contractors, partners and the general public, can submit allegations of misconduct directly to UNDP’s Independent Office of Audit and Investigation, using publicly available contacts

(https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/accountability/audit/office-of-audit-and-investigation.html#report). Every allegation is reviewed and, where appropriate, fully investigated.

UNDP also stands by its policy to not provide details on our staff.

Finally, the 2017 case related to the import of raspberry seedlings was fully investigated and appropriate actions and measures undertaken. A press statement and the entire documentation regarding the case remains available to the public on UNDP’s web site. [link: https://info.undp.org/sites/registry/secu/secupages/CaseDetail.aspx?ItemID=21]

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Today the UNDP Accelerator Lab in Bosnia and Herzegovina hosted the first virtual “Future Talks:_”, which mission is to present global innovative ideas and bold visions that can help solve challenges, shift mindsets and contribute to a better tomorrow of our planet.

The first virtual discussion was been dedicated to air quality. The effects of air pollution on physical and mental health of people are devastating and evidence shows that air pollution shortens life, lowers IQ, increases the risks of COVID-19 and contributes to death of more than 7 million people per year. Poor air quality significantly damages ecosystems and contributes to greenhouse emissions.

Steliana Nedera, UNDP Resident Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina stated that: “We need a reset and we have to change the way we think about complex issues like air quality. UNDP works with partners and countries across the world to build sustainable and healthy futures for everyone. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, we work in the areas of energy efficiency, climate change adaptation mitigation, protection of green areas. Yet, we still need to assess the cumulative impact of these activities and ask ourselves if these are sufficient for positive change at scale. These complex challenges do not leave us other choice but to invest in innovation and be ready to make brave leaps in development that would allow better quality of life for all.”

Aleksandra Berditchevskaia from NESTA who presented innovative approaches to address complex environmental challenges by combining human and machine intelligence said: “I really love the opportunities that are opened by enhancing creativity through combining technology and people. I am thinking about generative AI and how they push the boundaries of solutions that we explore when faced with a problem, or help create images of what something might look like 20 years down the line if no intervention is taken”.

Marco Poletto from ecoLogicStudio presented ground-breaking examples of bio-technological dwelling, the world’s largest 3D living sculpture that can serve as a biological filter and other examples that convert waste and pollution into energy, biomaterials and fresh super-food. “It is really about the inter-connection between biological intelligence, artificial or digital intelligence, and our collective human intelligence, as these systems are belonging to the same realm of life”.

Representatives from the self-organised Thailand Clean Air Network - Courtney Savie Lawrence and Weenarin Lulitanonda presented the experience from a citizen movement that looks at air as a basic right and mobilise civic activism around the issue of air quality that translates into a new legal framework. Weenarin Lulitanonda said that “While when talking about the future people think about technology, I draw back to the basic things. The basics of what we need to survive as human beings is the clean water, it is clean air, clean safe food. Having that understanding at a very deep level would help move mountains towards where we are heading as humanity”. “In Thailand, there is an opportunity to table legislation to the Government with a citizen-driven approach, which would include raising 10,000 signatures. We decided to raise awareness – which was one of the key leverage points – and ultimately transition that awareness into political action.”

Byung-Wook Brian Yoon from Hyundai Motor Company presented the company’ sustainable vision to provide freedom of movement to everyone by investing in mobility services, as well as supporting society’s transition to clean energy by helping make hydrogen an economically viable energy source. Brian said: “In 2035, the battery electric vehicles and new energy vehicles will represent half of our business”.

Priyanka DeSouza from the MIT Senseable City Lab presented data- and technology-based tools and innovative solutions that help urban sensing and ensure evidence for community and policy actions to tackle these.  For example, the City Vains project equips urban vehicles with low-cost sensors and creates a dense and mobile network of environmental sensors which in turn provide micro-level data that complements stationary sensors at a fraction of the deployment and maintenance costs. “By continuously engaging citizens and policy-makers – who are listening to our results and findings and start to better understand where the city hot-spots are - we will enable concrete actions and ideas that will address the exact issues.

Participants could also visit the virtual expo and see many more additional inspiring examples that successfully contribute to air quality.