Systemic corruption leaves its mark in many sectors of public governance and private affairs, generating costs that citizens pay and the public interest is affected. For citizens to be protected against corruption and abuse, there is a need for active dialogue between decision-makers and civil society, the business environment, and authorities responsible for compliance with standards and good governance in the procurement system.
Today, at the IDIS Viitorul headquarters took place a public debate "Trusting Public Procurement", in which public procurement experts, representatives of state authorities and local public authorities discussed the phenomenon of rigged auctions as an expression of anti-competitive conditions in the public procurement process. Anticompetitive practices involve a secret agreement or concerted practice between two or more bidders who agree to fix the price of certain services or products or to divide the market they are interested in in order to influence the auction results. As a result, consumers will suffer as a result of poor quality products, non-competitive services, and much less disadvantageous contracts for state authorities will be concluded than if they met the formal standards for the public affairs process.
The debate took place 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 and co-financed by the Hanns Seidel - Republic of Moldova Foundation.
"Every day we are bombarded with news about new detentions, new searches, new accusations in bidding trials. It seems that everyone has worked, and regulatory agencies, and CNA, and the Prosecutor's Office, but there are very few defendants with final sentences, and the big corruption files disappear and evaporate in the air like fantasies. Citizens often have the impression that they are assisting in a national sport, because of the fact that those caught with irregularities tend to escape exemplary punishments anyway. What happens in the area of purchasing directly affects the pockets of every citizen. Public procurement accounts for 5-10% of GDP. And trust is manifested by the way people look at the priorities of the institutions by how they can monitor them", said Igor Munteanu, Director of IDIS Viitorul, at the opening of debates.
Viorel Chivriga, director of programs at IDIS Viitorul, outlined the most common forms of anti-competitive practices in public procurement. These include: retention of the bid, alternative bidding, exclusion of qualified bidders, arranged specifications, manipulation of bidding procedures and the inclusion of fictitious companies in the bidding process.
In order to prevent anticompetitive practices, the Program Director said that it is necessary to use performance specifications when defining requirements, defining specifications taking into account substitutable products, varying the size of public procurement contracts, either by merging contracts or by dividing them, annually, the public procurement timetable and the organization of public procurement jointly with other contracting authorities, in the case of regular public procurement contracts that are repeated on a regular basis and which concern similar products.
The roundtable was attended by Dorin Dolghi - Legal Section, Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure, Dorina Galamaga, Superior Inspector of General Directorate for Prevention of Corruption, Gheorghe Ghidora - Head of Legal Department, National Agency for Solving Complaints, Dumitru Ochinca, Ministry of Finance and Gheorghe Raileanu, Mayor of Cimislia, CALM Vice-President ..
In conclusion, the invitees said that public procurement tricks are a hindrance to public procurement, and they appear with the agreement of some officials with the economic agents willing to make profits. A summary of the main conclusions and recommendations discussed at this meeting will be forwarded to the agencies on the following days. IDIS Viitorul project "Innovative Improvements in Public Procurement through Inclusion, Creativity, and Practices of Compliance," funded by the European Union and co-funded by the Hanns Seidel Foundation, supports institutional capacity building and good governance and democratic sustainability practices in the Republic of Moldova.
For further details, please contact the press officer, Victor URSU, at the following address: ursu.victoor@gmail.com or at 069017396.
