"Cutting edge improvements in the public procurement system in the Republic of Moldova through inclusiveness, creativity and law-abiding practices" is an EU-funded project launched on, May 18, by IDIS Viitorul. The project aims to strengthen civil society capacities to assess and monitor the public money spending and to promote dialogue between authorities and civil society organisations on the reform of public procurement.

"What happens in the field of procurement affects the pockets of every citizen. Public procurement  represents about 10% of the GDP. Trust is manifested in the way the population looks at the priorities of the institutions by the way they can monitor them. And this project launched by IDIS Viitorul has this goal”, explained IDIS Viitorul director, Igor Munteanu.

Marco Gemmer, Deputy Head of the Operations Department at the EU Delegation to the Republic of Moldova, said that reforming public procurement is a challenging task not only for the Republic of Moldova. Progress can only be achieved when all the relevant stakeholders join hands: the government, civil society, business operators and the donors. That's why the EU supports initiatives which contribute to establishing and enhancing this co-operation”.

Project Coordinator, Carolina Ungureanu presented the activities and the expected results of the project. She stated "the project aims to strengthen the watchdog role of civil society ensuring a greater transparency of procurement. It will also assist governmental authorities, public procurement regulatory authorities and contracting authorities to respect the principles of good governance (transparency, efficiency, effectiveness, legality, ethics, and integrity) in order to improve the procurement system and, therefore, the quality of public investment. The project aims at ensuring wider public access to relevant information in the procurement system covering the entire operational cycle, from the planning stage to the execution of the contract, as well as any breaches of public procurement procedures. Last but not least, IDIS will contribute to the creation of an effective system for resolving public procurement challenges through monitoring of the activities of the recently established Complaint Settlement Agency and capacity building to operators on how to use the complaint mechanism”.

The Deputy Minister of Finance, Iurii Cicibaba, welcomed the support of the EU to the reform of public procurement in Moldova which was initiated by the Ministry of Finance in 2016. The Deputy Minister expressed  the readiness of the authorities to collaborate with civil society on implementing the reform.   

Representatives of the Public Procurement Agency, the Court of Accounts, the National Anticorruption Center, the Competition Council as well as civil society organisations and business operatiors shared their views on the challenges in improving public procurement and confirmed their willigness to collaborate with the project.  

The event was organized within the framework of the project "Innovative improvements in the public procurement system of the Republic of Moldova through inclusion, creativity and law enforcement practices", funded by the European Union.

For further details, please contact the Press officer, Victor URSU, at the following address: ursu.victoor@gmail.com or at 069017396.