Although measures are set in place to make public procurements more efficient, the problems reported by businesses are corruption, theft, fraud, and shady interests. Public acquisitions are perceived as incorrect, inefficient, and non-transparent management of public money, concludes IDIS Viitorul expert Viorel Pârvan, during the “15 Minutes of Economic Reality” talk show. In the expert’s opinion, quoted by IPN, the tenders won according to the lowest bid criterion do not always ensure procurement of the best goods or services.

“The public procurement system in Moldova is bureaucratic, as businesses – in order to file a price offer – have to submit a series of certificates that many of them deem irrelevant, and take time to be obtained. Current legislation is relatively good, but issues surface when it comes to the implementation of provisions on public procurements,” claims Viorel Pârvan, quoting data from the IDIS Viitorul “Public Procurements Perception Index”.

As for appeals, businesses don’t file them if they had previously worked with the authority seeking the contract. Businesses don’t want to worsen their relations with authorities, leaving room for future cooperation.

For improving the public procurements system, the business sector recommends to institute criminal prosecution for all decision makers involved in procurement fraud, through extensive seizure of wealth, as well as to improve the competence, training, and qualifications of public officials and all other parties involved in open tenders. Another recommendation is to increase salaries for public functionaries, in order to prevent and reduce corruption, and – last, but not least – to revise procurement criteria, and substitute “lowest price” for the “price/quality” criterion.

The show is produced by IDIS “Viitorul” in partnership with Radio Free Europe.