We are in full heating season. Over 40% of households and about 70% of industrial enterprises, particularly those in the energy sector, use natural gas as a source of heat and heating. Respectively, Moldova is dependent on Russian gas supplied by Gazprom. Last but not least, there is no energy security on the supply and supply of natural gas. And this despite the construction of the much-praised Gazoduct Iasi-Ungheni. It is the opinion expressed by the economist IDIS Viitorul, Iurie Gotisan in the show "15 minutes of economic realism".
A simple radiography of data indicates that states that have had and still have conflicts, including the military, with the Russian Federation have diversified their natural gas supplies, particularly Georgia and Ukraine. First, it imports gas for domestic consumption of over 95% of Azerbaijan.
"Ukraine, after Russia's charging $ billions of dollars for gas supplies, including the Donbas armed conflict, barely has imported. And even if they are, they are for secessionist regions, about 4%. The rest of the natural gas consumption coming back from the EU, implicitly from Slovakia. Romania, apparently a special case on this dimension, considering that in 2013 it imports about 17% of Russian gas, and currently about 30% of total consumption", Gothisan said.
Regarding the Iasi-Ungheni gas pipeline in which high hopes have been put, namely to reduce the Republic of Moldova's dependence on the Russian Federation, this has not happened for the time being. Moreover, in the case of the full functionality of the gas pipeline, the cost and price side could also be a problem, but only in the short term. The average cost of one cubic meter of gas delivered to consumers in Romania is currently 2.5 RON or 0.6 USD on average 11 Moldovan lei. Interestingly, Romanian consumers are paying gas and depending on the quality area.
"To make full use of the gas pipeline, the Government of the Republic of Moldova hopes to build the section up to Chisinau, the deadline being the end of 2018. But an impediment to being taken into account by the Moldovan authorities is the expropriation procedure for citizens (about 150 in number) whose land is to cross the pipeline", concluded Gothisan.
The show is made by IDIS Viitorul in partnership with Radio Free Europe.
For more details, contact the Public Relations Coordinator IDIS Viitorul, Victor URSU at ursu.victoor@gmail.com or call 069017396.
Civil society monitoring and publicity investigations have revealed multiple violations, frauds, and corruption. The experience of some organizations and journalists on the monitoring of public money shows that monitoring public money has a positive impact on good governance, primarily by putting public pressure on authorities and making them accountable. It is the generic of the 12th Training for Civil Society Representatives in the framework of the project "Innovative Improvements in the public procurement system of the Republic of Moldova through inclusion, creativity and compliance practices", implemented by IDIS "Viitorul", with the financial support of the European Union.
Public money reaches the accounts of private companies as a result of auctions for the procurement of goods and services, and economic agents who get contracts with some public authorities make donations to political parties from which the managers of the public institutions that have organized the auctions are promoted.
Cornelia Cozonac, director of the Journalism Investigation Center, said that economic agents who are in charge with state institutions make donations in the election campaign and throughout the year. One example was the drug scandal of 2015 when a third of health auctions went to a single company, Dita EstFarm. "The Medicines Agency decided to include the company in the list of bans to participate in public auctions by March 2018 but was removed from this list in just four days, based on a court decision. Meanwhile, he managed to win 16 auctions, but also to escape the 14 million lei sanction imposed by the Competition Council for abuse of dominant power found in the drug crisis".
As regards the good execution of the works in the procurement contracts, Oleasea Stamate, chairman of the Association for Efficient and Responsible Governance, stated in the training that the large contracts do not stipulate the performance guarantee or be paid before the works are completed. "The good/work guarantee - is a selection criterion, ie if the bidder does not offer at least the guarantee stipulated in the tender documents, he is disqualified and his offer no longer passes to the bid evaluation stage".
She suggested to those who monitor the procurement process to draw attention to the content of the specification and how appropriate the requirements are, the presence of all the documents in the tender specifications, the content of the winning bid and the procurement contract. "The stage of implementation of the contract is important, therefore, the need for increased attention and in the case of finding the irregularities in the file or implementing the contract, the contracting authority, the Public Procurement Agency, the Court of Accounts, the Prosecutor's Office must be notified.
Civil society representatives who participated in training said that they often face limited access to information on a particular procurement or procurement dossier. The contracting authorities invoke various reasons not to provide the information requested under the legal framework for information and public procurement.
For further details, please contact the press officer, Victor URSU, at the following address: ursu.victoor@gmail.com or at 069017396.
Monitoring public procurement is not a fuss of civil society but is aimed at reducing corruption and fraud in public procurement. This is because procurement contracts are a vulnerable area to corruption risks because a public contract involves the interaction between the public and the private sectors. About 15% of global GDP is moving annually through public contracts between the government and the private sector, and according to international statistics, corruption costs would be around 20% -25% of the purchase budget. These figures, translated into the context of the Republic of Moldova, taking into account that the value of purchases in 2016 amounted to about 7.5 billion lei, help us estimate the cost of corruption in public procurement in Moldova, which would amount to 1.5 billion lei. This is the opinion expressed by the IDIS Viitorul economist, Diana Enachi, in the show "15 minutes of economic realism".
Pressure from civil society, sometimes coupled with a good media campaign, can encourage authorities to sanction corrupt actors, either from the administration or the private sector. For effective monitoring, civil society in the Republic of Moldova needs a good knowledge of the public procurement system, of the legal and institutional framework, of the process that a public authority carries out for purchasing a good but also of monitoring tools through which it can be identified snuggles, fraud, and corruption in the system. IDIS "Viitorul" aims to contribute to strengthening civil society capacities to monitor how money and public resources are used for their purchases.
Thus, this spring, IDIS "Viitorul" implements the project "Improvement innovative public procurement system in Moldova by inclusion, creativity and practice the compliance" funded by the European Union through the Strengthening the role societăţţii civil monitoring budget support operations. As part of this project, we have initiated and implemented a Comprehensive Training Program for civil society organizations, monitors, and journalists in the field of public procurement monitoring. The purpose of this program is to strengthen the capacities of civil society in the Republic of Moldova to understand the functioning of the public procurement system, the institutional and legal framework governing the sector, and the process of procurement by a public entity. Participants are trained in data collection and analysis on procurement, applying innovative tools for identifying irregularities and illegalities, and share accountability of public authorities to carry out transparent and efficient procurement", said Diana Enachi.
The program includes training the monitors to apply a widely recognized and widely applied methodology - the "red flags" instrument, which is based on identifying the risks of fraud and corruption at each stage of the procurement process. It is a very useful tool for the monitoring procurement as it includes not only detection of violations and irregularities, and analysis tools "flags" as well as recommendations to prevent and eliminate the risks of corruption and instituting control bodies and justice . "red flags" in planning the acquisition and development of documentation and specifications relating to: handling needs of contracting authorities, overestimating the value of goods, services or works planned to be procured, publish the annual plan of procurement website, division purchase or "adjust" it to the interests of a person or company.
The show is made by IDIS Viitorul in partnership with Radio Free Europe.
For more details, contact the Public Relations Coordinator IDIS Viitorul, Victor URSU at ursu.victoor@gmail.com or call 069017396.
Rural development goes hand in hand with agriculture, but poorly paid jobs, underdeveloped infrastructure, lack of elementary public services and technologies are driving out the active labor force in the countryside.
"Rural development is a complex subject and has links with other sectors where there is competition. It is the sector of production in agriculture, services, domestic and international trade. And here comes the first symptomatic signals of production factors, which need a rigorous analysis and solutions - connected to reality. Farmers in the Republic of Moldova produce conditions different from those in the EU. And here comes the issue of specialization, traditions, support from EU countries and experience, which Moldovan producers do not have. It is also important to anchor markets that are largely occupied and must be conquered, explained in the show" 15 minutes of economic realism,"Viorel Chivriga, director of programs IDIS Viitorul.
In the villages of the Republic of Moldova, the living standard is low, plus the road and service infrastructure is poor or not developed. One on top of that, rural poverty is favored by reduced accessibility to urban centers, poor access infrastructure and the predominantly agricultural occupancy of the population, which is still poorly paid. "There are already very large vacancies on the labor market in rural areas. Traditionalist situations are commonplace, "said the program director.
Viorel Chivriga has identified some solutions that can develop rural and localities and set off farming businesses. These are innovations and technologies. "They play an important role in modernizing localities, but the ability to attract technologies is very low and is due to the weak academic sector. The Global Competitiveness Report shows that we need to act promptly and quickly if we are to change the situation in the country".
The program director mentioned that the development of consultancy services in the Republic of Moldova is weak. "There are a lot of farmers in the country who manage 1.6 million ha of arable land and over 2 million ha of agricultural land. But the information can not reach every person. In order to boost consultancy services, it is necessary to implement IT technologies through which farmers are informed about legislation, market trends, legal services".
The show is made by IDIS Viitorul in partnership with Radio Free Europe.
For more details, contact the Public Relations Coordinator IDIS Viitorul, Victor URSU at ursu.victoor@gmail.com or call 069017396.
Corruption and fraud in public procurement remain a problem in the Republic of Moldova and are manifested in the form of illegal bribery, anti-competitive agreements, fictitious companies participation, speculated specifications, unjustified exclusion of qualified bidders and other frauds at the stage of contract execution. There are some of the ideas presented at the eighth training for civil society representatives in the project "Innovative Improvements in the public procurement system of the Republic of Moldova through inclusion, creativity and compliance practices", implemented by IDIS "Viitorul", with the financial support of the European Union.
Head of the Directorate-General for Audit of Public Finance at the Court of Auditors, Natalia Trofim argues that while efforts are being made to ensure the integrity and transparency of the procurement system, an important problem remains the non-compliance with the legal provisions by budget executors / contracting authorities / other parties involved in the process public procurement. Among the irregularities most commonly encountered by the Court of Auditors in the public procurement process are: the non-compliance of the work group's work for acquisitions and the failure to establish the responsibility of each member, the failure to draw up annual and quarterly public procurement plans with non-compliance with the principle of transparency, and impartiality of the members of the working group for procurement and not drawing up the protocols for the opening of tenders.
Olga Tîju from the Institutional Assessment Division at the National Anticorruption Center addressed the participants in the training on the tasks of the CNA in the field of corruption prevention in the public procurement system in the Republic of Moldova, the most frequent risks of fraud and corruption, including in the context of purchases of food products.
Within the CNA there is a mechanism for assessing the risks of corruption in the legislation and activity of enterprises with full or majority state or municipal quota. It is the risk of assets diversion (risk) of the manipulation of procurement procedures, the risk of misappropriation of assets, the risk of overcoming the attributions / abuse of service decision makers within the companies and the risk of deliberate manipulation of financial reports / the risk of forgery in accounting documents
"The integrity of public procurement procedures is an important step that the authorities must undertake to avoid conflicts of interest and rigged auctions," said Valentina Ion, president of the NGO "Equal Partner Woman".
For further details, please contact the press officer, Victor URSU, at the following address: ursu.victoor@gmail.com or at 069017396.
Transparency of procurement data generates efficient use of public money and minimizes the risk of contracting authorities, transparency of public procurement, ensuring competition and combating unfair competition, and promoting sustainable development through public procurement. It is the generic of the seventh training for civil society representatives in the framework of the project "Innovative Improvements in the public procurement system of the Republic of Moldova through inclusion, creativity and compliance practices", implemented by IDIS "Viitorul", with the financial support of the European Union.
"International practice shows that electronic procurement systems can be a good tool for streamlining public budgets and strengthening good governance. Electronic purchases bring benefits to both authorities by reducing administrative burdens and the private environment - by ensuring a healthy competitive environment and equal conditions when participating in a procurement process. But the greatest benefit is getting the value for public money, which means we can get the best value for money and quality and therefore we will have quality public services", says Diana Enachi, project coordinator.
Daniela Panuş, chief legal officer of the Public Procurement Agency, stated that the opening of procurement data has the advantage of free movement of goods, freedom of establishment and provision of services, equal treatment, impartiality, non-discrimination with regard to all tenderers and economic operators, proportionality and assuming responsibility in public procurement procedures.
In turn, Deputy Finance Minister Iurii Cicibaba, present at the training, stressed that one of the steps taken by the Ministry of Finance to reform the public procurement system, especially with regard to the e-procurement system, was the call for cooperation with civil society and business environment and signing a memorandum. The Vice-Minister spoke to the participants about the M-Tender electronic procurement system: the architecture of the system, the benefits of the multiplatform approach (stimulating competition, encouraging the provision of additional services, distributing the costs of implementation and maintenance), the advantages for the participants in the procedure (all economic operators are placed on equal terms They can bid online anywhere they are not, they can participate in the electronic auction wherever they are not, they can see the price of the other bidders during the electronic auction if the procurement procedure is completed with the auction, etc.); advantages for the procurement organizer (the possibility of using the electronic auction, increasing the number of participants, operative support from the platforms, additional services from the platforms).
"Transparency in the public procurement process will put all participants on an equal footing and avoid the trickery and jitters between contracting authorities and tenderers," said Gac Doriana, a volunteer from the NGO's Equal Opportunities for All.
For further details, please contact the press officer, Victor URSU, at the following address: ursu.victoor@gmail.com or at 069017396.
Municipal authorities allocate for almost a decade compensations for the heat to the socially vulnerable population, although with the 60 million lei allocated annually, the municipality could mobilize 600 million lei for the energy efficiency of the blocks in the Capital (insulation of the buildings and switching to the distribution system horizontal of the thermal agent), suggested the energy expert from IDIS Viitorul Victor Parlicov at the show "15 minutes of economic realism".
Chisinau is the only city in the Republic of Moldova to provide heat compensation in the cold period of the year in a volume of 40% of the thermal energy bill for the socially vulnerable population.
According to Parlicov, the issue of large heat bills in Moldova is primarily due to the poor energy efficiency of the blocks. For comparison, the Republic of Moldova consumes three times more thermal energy to heat a square meter of space compared to the EU. The situation was inherited from the Soviet era when energy resources were very cheap and there was no question of energy efficiency, and we can not afford to waste energy anymore.
"Money allocated to vulnerable consumers by municipal authorities de facto subsidizes energy inefficiency. The pilot projects carried out in the past by Thermocom SA and recently by SA "Termoelectrica" have demonstrated that by adopting energy efficiency measures (thermal insulation of buildings and switching from the vertical distribution system of the thermal agent to a horizontal system with metering of each apartment and the possibility for consumers to adjust the heat level from the radiator) can achieve a reduction in energy consumption by up to 45%. By making such an investment, the burden of heat bills for those consumers would be reduced forever. But local authorities spend the same 40%, each month during the cold season of the year, to clear the bill for these consumers, "Parlicov said.
Energy efficiency work can only be done entirely at the whole block level and not for each individual apartment. Respectively, even if all the administrative and legal problems were solved, and the inhabitants of a block would agree to jointly invest in these works, the economic problem would remain - the vulnerable social population would have no resources to pay for their contribution to these efficiency works energy. Termoelectrica's S.A. experience with the Panddurilor str. 52 demonstrates that the average investment needed to move from the horizontal distribution system to the horizontal is about 500 euro for each apartment.
In conclusion, the energy expert argues that if it is to admit that about 10% of the apartments in each block is inhabited by socially vulnerable consumers then the 60 million lei allocated to compensators could raise up to 600 million lei for investments in energy efficiency of buildings. Respectively, some of the money allocated annually from the municipal budget should be combined with the financial means from the energy efficiency fund to set up a financial package available for improving the energy efficiency of the blocks in Chisinau.
The show is made by IDIS Viitorul in partnership with Radio Free Europe.
For more details, contact the Public Relations Coordinator IDIS Viitorul, Victor URSU at ursu.victoor@gmail.com or call 069017396.
Bidders can play an important role in detecting anticompetitive practices in public procurement by informing the competition authority of a suspicion of anti-competitive agreement between competitors, but also if they are part of such an agreement. However, the leniency policy is a favorable treatment by the Competition Council of the undertakings involved in a cartel, which cooperates with the competition authority to discover these anticompetitive practices. To detect and prevent such practices, there are several tools and indicators that, in practice, use procurement organizations to help combat unfair competition. This is the topic discussed at the Sixth Training for Civil Society Representatives in the framework of the project "Innovative Improvements in the public procurement system of the Republic of Moldova through inclusion, creativity and compliance practices" implemented by IDIS "Viitorul", with the financial support of the European Union.
Viorel Chivriga, director of programs at IDIS Viitorul, claims that anti-competitive practices can be avoided by avoiding communication between bidders. In the case of the market consultation, it is advisable to organize separate meetings with economic operators, to avoid supplying competitive tendering information, opening tenders or communicating results, which could distort competition in subsequent auctions.
The most common anticompetitive practices target fictitious companies (often consulting firms), also called "front-end companies", which are not legal entities created to obtain contracts in non-transparent ways, set up by public officials of the authority contracting parties to issue false invoices and to facilitate the choice of the winner and to create the impression of competition.
Diana Enachi, coordinator of the project, exemplified the auction of auctions through the case of SA "Set-Service" SA, which filed a leniency application with the Competition Council acknowledging that together with the company "Nufăr-Cia" they participated with falsified offers for the purpose of batch splitting within the procurement procedure for the repair of the technological equipment according to the needs of the educational institutions was organized by the Department of Youth Education and Sports, the Ciocana Sector (DETS).
"Trusts in public procurement is an impediment to public procurement, and they appear with the agreement of some officials in the company with economic agents willing to make profits," said Maria Lascov from A.O Concordia.
For further details, please contact the press officer, Victor URSU, at the following address: ursu.victoor@gmail.com or at 069017396.
After more than a year, the National Agency for the Settlement of Claims (ANSC) in public procurement is functional and the economic agents may file appeals. The institution aims to prevent unfair competition and to stimulate procurement procedures. This is the opinion expressed by the IDIS Viitorul economist, Diana Enachi, in the show "15 minutes of economic realism".
Although it has become operational since September this year, the process of setting up the ANSC has been non-transparent and public participation in the hearings for candidates has been restricted.
The IDIS economist, Viitorul, claims that after the signing of the Association Agreement, the Republic of Moldova has assumed a number of commitments, including the reform of the public procurement system. One of the obligations assumed is directly linked to the creation of an effective redress system for the award of public procurement contracts by creating an impartial and independent body responsible for examining and resolving the complaints submitted by economic agents in the procurement procedures to which they have participated. According to the legal provisions, any person who has or has had an interest in obtaining a public procurement contract and considers that in the public procurement procedures an act of the contracting authority has violated a right recognized by law, as a result of which it has suffered or may incur damage.
"What economic agents and civil society need to know is the public character of appeals review sessions, and any person can participate and ANSC is obliged to publish the date and venue of these meetings at least 3 days until the date on which will take place", concluded Diana Enachi.
The show is made by IDIS Viitorul in partnership with Radio Free Europe.
For more details, contact the Public Relations Coordinator IDIS Viitorul, Victor URSU at ursu.victoor@gmail.com or call 069017396.
The National Agency for Settlement of Claims (ANSC) has the competence to examine the appeals formulated in public procurement procedures. The dispute settlement in the field of public procurement is the generic of the fifth training for civil society representatives within the project "Innovative Improvements in the public procurement system of the Republic of Moldova through inclusion, creativity and compliance practices", implemented by IDIS "Viitorul" with the financial support of the European Union.
"The injured economic operator may file a complaint with the National Agency for the Settlement of Claims for the annulment of the act and/or the acknowledgment of the alleged right or of the legitimate interest by filing a contestation. The contracting authority is not entitled to conclude the public procurement contract until a final decision on the appeal has been issued by the National Agency for Solving Complaints. The decision of the National Agency for Settlement of Complaints is binding on the parties. The public procurement contract concluded in disregard of the decision of the National Agency for Solving Complaints is hit by absolute nullity. The decision of the National Agency for Settlement of Appeals may be appealed to the competent court ", said Gheorghe GHIDORA - Chief Legal Directorate, National Agency for Solving Complaints.
Viorel Pîrvan, the jurist of IDIS "Viitorul" explained in the training how an appeal can be made by the economic agent who felt injured. "Any person who has or has had an interest in obtaining a public procurement contract and who considers that, in public procurement procedures, an act of the contracting authority has infringed a right recognized by law, the fact of which it has or bears the right to challenge the act in the manner prescribed by this law. " Pârvan recommended "to improve and strengthen the Agency's capacities to solve specific areas such as infrastructure and construction; medical (highly specialized medical equipment and equipment); IT domain; environmental infrastructure (eg sewage treatment plants, waste management); transport; energy; concessionaires; elaboration of a Guide for examination and resolution of appeals, intended for economic agents".
The civil society representatives who participated in the fifth seminar of the 16 programs had a number of questions / clarifications on the subject (eg: if ANSC is an autonomous and independent institution vis-à-vis other public authorities, what is the procedure examination and resolution of appeals, what are the solutions that ANSC can give, etc.). Participants were interested in attending open sessions for the examination of complaints conducted by ANSC, knowing that the institution ensures that the information on the date and venue of the sessions is published on the web page within 3 working days before the date on which they take place.
For further details, please contact the press officer, Victor URSU, at the following address: ursu.victoor@gmail.com or at 069017396.
