Romanian Government approves new public procurement legislation
October 29 2015
On October 27th, the Government of Romania approved a new
legislation package regarding public procurement with the hope of
making such endeavors easier and more transparent.
The list of changes(1) to this particular legislation starts off with the reductions of medium to long term costs by introducing a novel principle known as “value for money”. According to this concept, the lowest price of the product won't be the only one taken into consideration, but rather it will be joined by other assignation criteria such as the cost of the entire life cycle of the product, the service, the acquired work and so on. As such, the contracting authority basically gives the acquisition contract to the highest bidder, who will be determined on the basis of the lowest price or best price to quality ratio, along with the aforementioned additional factors.
Rules regarding the assigning of the public procurement contract will apply to those cases where such acquisitions' value is greater or equal to the following sums: 22,908,118 RON for public procurement contracts or frame agreements for workmanship; 591,918 RON for public procurement contracts or frame agreements for products and services; 3,312,975 RON for public procurement contracts or frame agreements for services which focus on social services and other specific services inscribed in the law. As well, a public authority will be able to acquisition services and products if the overall value, excluding VAT is less than 66,259,5 RON. As far as workmanship goes the value excluding VAT is lower than 265,038 RON. By implementing the offer evaluation mechanism, the public procurement process will be redefined and will soon start producing societal effects.
The new regulations also make clear the authorities' obligation to give reasons for their decision to not split into lots a public procurement contract, in the event that they make such a decision. This way they might encourage the participation of medium and small businesses in public assignment procedures. Furthermore, the regulations make reference to the possibility of limiting the number of lots which can be assigned to one bidder. Thus the assigning of multiple lower value contracts is preferred to that of one higher value contract being assigned to one bidder. Moreover, it will become obligatory for contracting authorities to be more transparent by using electronic means during the whole process of assigning contracts as well as file an electronic document for the purpose of whatever acquisition they plan to make.
Another novel element comes in the form of regulating the conflicts of interest, whereby the definition of this phenomenon is broadened to include more than just family ties and capital. These and other novel regulations in the public procurement legislation will, as Romanian Finance Minister also hopes, enter into force starting January 1st 2016. This way Romania might observe an improvement in the social aspects targeted by the new modifications sooner and executed with more efficiency than if it were to wait longer for such changes.
The list of changes(1) to this particular legislation starts off with the reductions of medium to long term costs by introducing a novel principle known as “value for money”. According to this concept, the lowest price of the product won't be the only one taken into consideration, but rather it will be joined by other assignation criteria such as the cost of the entire life cycle of the product, the service, the acquired work and so on. As such, the contracting authority basically gives the acquisition contract to the highest bidder, who will be determined on the basis of the lowest price or best price to quality ratio, along with the aforementioned additional factors.
Rules regarding the assigning of the public procurement contract will apply to those cases where such acquisitions' value is greater or equal to the following sums: 22,908,118 RON for public procurement contracts or frame agreements for workmanship; 591,918 RON for public procurement contracts or frame agreements for products and services; 3,312,975 RON for public procurement contracts or frame agreements for services which focus on social services and other specific services inscribed in the law. As well, a public authority will be able to acquisition services and products if the overall value, excluding VAT is less than 66,259,5 RON. As far as workmanship goes the value excluding VAT is lower than 265,038 RON. By implementing the offer evaluation mechanism, the public procurement process will be redefined and will soon start producing societal effects.
The new regulations also make clear the authorities' obligation to give reasons for their decision to not split into lots a public procurement contract, in the event that they make such a decision. This way they might encourage the participation of medium and small businesses in public assignment procedures. Furthermore, the regulations make reference to the possibility of limiting the number of lots which can be assigned to one bidder. Thus the assigning of multiple lower value contracts is preferred to that of one higher value contract being assigned to one bidder. Moreover, it will become obligatory for contracting authorities to be more transparent by using electronic means during the whole process of assigning contracts as well as file an electronic document for the purpose of whatever acquisition they plan to make.
Another novel element comes in the form of regulating the conflicts of interest, whereby the definition of this phenomenon is broadened to include more than just family ties and capital. These and other novel regulations in the public procurement legislation will, as Romanian Finance Minister also hopes, enter into force starting January 1st 2016. This way Romania might observe an improvement in the social aspects targeted by the new modifications sooner and executed with more efficiency than if it were to wait longer for such changes.
Sources:
1 http://gov.ro/ro/stiri/guvernul-a-aprobat-proiectul-legislativ-privind-achizitiile-publice
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