A National Agency for Dispute Resolution is to be set up in Moldova by January 1, 2017. A bill to this effect was debated in the November 23 meeting of the parliamentary commission for economy, budget and finance.

According to one of the authors, unaffiliated MP Stefan Creanga, the main task of this body will be to deal with complaints about public procurement. The creation of such an agency is envisioned in the new Law on Government Procurement.

Ștefan Creanga said resolving such disputes is now the prerogative of the Public Procurement Agency. The new body will contribute to excluding conflicts of interest that can appear in the work of the Public Procurement Agency as, on the one hand, this is responsible for registering the results of the public procurement procedures. On the other hand, it is responsible for resolving disputes in this field.

The MP noted that the new body was to be created this May. According to him, the agency will annually report to Parliament on its work.

“Statistics show that 10% of the public procurement procedures are challenged,” stated Stefan Creanga.

The agency will have 30 employees. A sum of 3 million lei was budgeted for the purpose.