The Institute for Development and Social Initiatives “Viitorul” on January 19 launched the project “Building of a transparent and sustainable public procurement system through a permanent monitoring process”. This way, the Institute, alongside other nongovernmental organizations, will monitor the purchases made by public institutions in nine northern, central and southern districts and in Gagauzia. Workshops will be staged in the given regions, IPN reports.
“Viitorul” vice director Liubomir Chiriac said the public procurement process in Moldova witnesses major deficiencies. In an assessment by the EBRD, the institutional framework of the public procurement system was described as poorly compliant. “To overcome the problems faced in this process, we need to harmonize the legislation on government procurement with the EU acquis and build an efficient public procurement system, in accordance with the provisions of the Deep and Compressive Free Trade Agreement,” he stated.
Transparency International Moldova director Lilia Carasciuc said the idea of the project was put forward by high-ranking European officials who identified shortcomings in the public procurement system of Moldova and recommended civil society to become involved in monitoring the authorities so as to see how they spend public money. The project aims to establish a network of NGOs that will monitor the public procurement process at different levels.
“We aim to improve the government procurement system and to increase transparency in the sector. We also want to remove the existing shortcomings like corruption, deviations from the legal norms, lack of information and excessive politicization,” stated Viorel Chivriga, head of the Economic Department of “Viitorul” Institute.
Diana Enachi, expert within the project, underlined the importance of public procurement that involves financial resources representing 10% of the country’s GDP. Therefore, the method of using the public funds for the people’s benefit must be monitored and assessed.
Expert Valentin Lozovanu said 40% of the public purchases made with donors’ funds, especially in healthcare, agriculture and environment, have a low level of transparency and thus are exposed to increased corruption risks. “Not the whole information about public procurement is made public. We do not know how the money is used in this respect. When violations are identified, these are not penalized harshly,” he stated.
The project is financed by the Policy Association for an Open Society (PASOS) of the Czech Republic with a sub-grant provided within the Partners in Empowerment Project that is supported by the European Commission through the Neighborhood Civil Society Facility (European Neighborhood and Partnership Instrument) - Regional actions.
