A number of civil society organizations firmly condemn the violation by the Government of the legislation on transparency in the decision-making process. In a statement, the NGOs make reference to a draft Government decision concerning the amendment of a decision on the approval of the technical concept of the automated information system State Register of Public Procurement known as MTender. The draft decision was published on the Ministry of Finance’s website on January 29, 2019, with February 13 being indicated as the deadline for collecting opinions. However, the next day, on January 30, the draft was included in the agenda of the Government’s meeting and was approved. The NGOs consider such flagrant violation of the legislation on decisional transparency is inadmissible.
In a news conference at IPN, president of the Association for Efficient and Responsible Governance (AGER) Olesea Stamate said the mentioned decision allows for the abrogation of two points from Decision No. 705 (of July 11, 2018) concerning the approval of the technical concept of the automated information system State Register of Public Procurement known as MTender. By such abrogation, the previous electronic procurement system SIA RSAP, which was to be used only as an archive under Decision No. 705, will be restored. The signatories of the statement say the arguments in favor of such a decision generate questions.
Olesea Stamate noted that according to the authors, the abrogation of the given points is needed because the public procurement procedures initiated through the system, approved by Government Decision No. 355/2009, which is the old SIA RSAP, haven’t been completed and, concurrently, after these are completed, the contracting authorities can make changes to the procurement contracts signed after performing these procedures and the use of this system only as an archive will not enable to do this. “It’s true that a particular number of procedures launched through the old SIA RSAP, before the launch of the new SIA RSAP MTender system at national level, haven’t been completed as the contracts weren’t implemented. But the old system does not envision the publication of contracts online and these cannot be modified in the system. All the changes are made on paper. This way, authors‘ arguments are not pertinent,” stated Olesea Stamate.
The statement signed by the representatives of civil society reminds of the significant increase of the ceilings for low value acquisitions by Parliament at the end of 2018. But these acquisitions are not covered by Law 131 concerning public procurement and are fully non-transparent. According to AGER expert Valeriu Ciorba, these acquisitions are now not performed through the new MTender system and there is no obligation for the contracting authorities to publish low value contracts in the system. The signatories call on the Ministry of Finance to work out and submit to the Government for approval a draft decision providing that the acquisitions to the value of over 50,000 lei should be mandatorily performed by respecting minimum competition and transparency requirements through the MTender system, indisputably.
Diana Enachi, expert of the Institute for Development and Social Initiatives “Viitorul”, said the violation of decisional transparency by approving a decision overnight generates indignation. Therefore, civil society demands that the Government, more exactly the Ministry of Finance, should stage public consultations when taking decisions concerning public procurement. According to the public procurement system confidence index launched by “Viitorul” last year, 61% of the respondents said the efficiency of the national public procurement system is at a low and very low level. These data show the system is inefficient and nontransparent.
The statement was signed by the Association for Efficient and Responsible Governance, the Institute for Development and Social Initiatives “Viitorul”, the Independent Think Tank “Expert-Grup”, WatchDog.MD Community, the Legal Resources Center of Moldova, East-Europe Foundation, the Institute for European Policies and Reforms, the Institute for Public Policy, Transparency International Moldova, the public association “Habitat”, the Association for Human Rights Lex XXI and the public association “Solidary Parents”.
