The Chisinau City Hall must comply with the commitments undertaken by the Local Anticorruption Plan for 2022-2025, in particular the compilation and publication on its website of half-yearly and annual reports on the implementation of the plan and the composition of the monitoring group. Such a recommendation was formulated by experts of Transparency International-Moldova, who presented the results of the monitoring of public procurement carried out by the Chisinau City Hall, its subdivisions and municipal enterprises.
“First of all, we believe that it is absolutely necessary to familiarize the management, both of the Chisinau City Hall and its subdivisions, as well as of the management of municipal enterprises, with the provisions of the legal framework regarding access to information of public interest and about public procurement,” TI-Moldova expert Ianina Spinei stated in a news conference at IPN.
According to her, it is appropriate for the Financial Control Inspectorate to carry out a thematic analysis of compliance with the legislation on public procurement by the Chisinau City Hall, its subdivisions and the founded municipal enterprises, with the posting of the results of this analysis on the Inspectorate’s website.
“At the same time, given that there are several entities that could come up with suggestions regarding public procurement, we believe that a joint discussion is needed with representatives of the Ministry of Finance, the Public Procurement Agency, the State Financial Control Inspectorate, the Court of Auditors and the Chisinau City Hall regarding the systemic problems that are identified in the field of public procurement. Namely, to find and come up with appropriate solutions to remedy the situation,” stated the TI-Moldova expert.
Ianina Spinei also said that it is necessary to make the contracting authorities responsible for not presenting in SIA MTender information on the conducted low-value public procurement, as well as for the non-publication of reports on the monitoring of procurement contracts. The Chisinau City Hall should initiate internal audit missions on the subject of public procurement covering several entities, by informing about the results by placing internal audit reports on its website.
Another recommendation is related to the development of the City Hall’s website in the public procurement section, namely the concentration of data under a single heading or on a portal in order to exclude the duplication of information under different headings, continuous updating of data. It is also recommended to improve the web pages of municipal enterprises by creating, filling in special sections intended for public procurement, placing the information stipulated in the Law on State-Owned Enterprise and Municipal Enterprise, etc.
The press conference was held within the project “Public procurement in the Chisinau City Hall under the magnifying glass of transparency”, carried out by Transparency International – Moldova, as a sub-grant beneficiary of the project “Strengthening integrity in public procurement”. The project is implemented by the Institute for Development and Social Initiatives (IDIS) “Viitorul”, in cooperation with the Partnership for Transparency (U.S.). The project aims to support public procurement reforms in Moldova, which will increase transparency and fairness of public procurement by empowering citizens to hold relevant institutions accountable. The opinions expressed in the press release and the responsibility for its content belong to the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of IDIS “Viitorul” and the donor.
