More transparency for public procurement in Romania

The US Trade and Development Agency will be training 50 Romanian employees in the field of public procurement

România Internațional, 18.06.2015, 14:00

The government in Bucharest and the
US Trade and Development Agency on Wednesday signed a memorandum to provide
training for 50 employees of Romanian public procurement institutions. The
latter are to attend a three-day seminar given by teachers from the George
Washington University on how to obtain the best value for money and how to
incorporate an assessment of life cycle costs into public procurement
processes.

Dean Thompson, Charge
d’Affaires at
the US Embassy in Bucharest, said an adequate revision of public procurement
rules and the implementation of a prevention system to identify conflicts of
interest would help Romania combat corruption in this area. In the opinion of
the US official, an efficient public procurement system is vital to achieving
sustained economic growth, while supporting businesses. You
can have the best policy in place, but it doesn’t mean much if the capability
to implement is not there, Dean Thompson also said. He added that public funds
must be used to purchase the latest technology, arguing that ensuring fair
conditions for both established companies and those who provide new and
innovative technologies would bring added value to public money and increase
the efficiency of public investments. The prevention system mentioned by the US
official will be implemented jointly with the National Integrity Agency.

Attending the signing
of the memorandum, Romania’s finance minister Eugen Teodorovici said the reform
of the public procurement system is one of his government’s goals. He said a
new package of laws to implement the European directive in the field would be
launched for public debate at the end of the month, so that Parliament could
pass it in autumn. The package entails four bills on public procurement, public
utilities, contestation and concessions. The minister also said that the government
would issue a decision in July to regulate the structure of the National Public
Procurement Agency and make it more supple and dynamic. Teodorovici also
announced that the national public procurement strategy is be approved by the
European Commission within the next two weeks.