The new electronic public procurement system e-Procurement is an instrument that will analyze and change the current situation and will contribute to greater transparency, deputy minister of finance Iury Cicibaba said in a press club meeting staged by the Journalistic Investigations Center and the Association for Efficient and Responsible Governance (AGER). The e-Procurement project was launched on the initiative of the Ministry of Finance in cooperation with the EBRD. A memorandum of cooperation between the Ministry of Finance, the development partners and several civil society organizations interested in business and public procurement was signed for the purpose, IPN reports.
According to the deputy minister, 16 institutions confirmed that they will make effort to change the situation in the public procurement sector with joint support. The piloting of the system will be supported by civil society, business associations and other partners.
“We want anyone to be able to enter the system and see what they bought and why a particular company won the bidding contest. We want to fully use this system,” stated Iury Cicibaba.
He also said that the new system tends to increase the procurement level and to eliminate the mistakes made by persons who form part of the working group or the contracting authorities. It will bring about changes to the whole process, from procurement planning to delivery.
Another pursued goal is to increase the professionalism of persons who form part of the working groups. “We want to introduce certification of professional procurists. This is provided in our strategy. We want the working group to include at least one certified professional procurist,” stated the deputy minister.
Gheorghe Chidora, deputy head of the Regulation and Control Division of the Public Procurement Agency, said the electronic system that will be implemented excludes particular problems related to the qualification of personnel, but no system will fully exclude the human factor. “The problems we face are related to the bidding criteria based on the lowest bid and factors showing the quality, the goods delivery conditions. Each group should be ready to identify these,” he stated.
According to Iury Cicibaba, the bill is to be approved by Government decision and could be implemented by next April. There are now three platforms that provide information about public procurement: 9.md, e-licitatie.md and e-tender.md.
The designing of the electronic public procurement system e-Procurement is part of the memorandum concerning the initiative to develop transparent and efficient electronic public procurement in Moldova, submitted by the Ministry of Finance, local NGOs and representatives of the business community on November 30, 2016.
