Moldova: One Year Without a Public Procurement Complaints Resolution Body
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Automatically translated summary. The full text is available in Romanian.
Independent Think Tank “Expert-Grup” warns that Moldova has gone a year without an institutionalised system for resolving public procurement complaints. The National Agency for Complaint Resolution, meant to replace the old mechanism under the new procurement law, has still not been created because Parliament has not completed the selection of its counsellors.
Law No. 131 of 3 July 2015 on public procurement entered into force on 1 May 2016. It transferred complaint-resolution powers from the Public Procurement Agency to a new National Agency for Complaint Resolution. That agency was not created, so complaints are effectively no longer resolved and courts are the only option.
Under the 2016-2020 Public Procurement Development Strategy, the agency was to be operational from 1 January 2017. Parliament’s economy, budget and finance committee began selecting its counsellors only in December 2016 and was expected to finish by the end of March 2017, but the process remains incomplete, with no explanation given. The delay creates major risks for the whole procurement system and undermines recent modernisation efforts. Businesses may lose trust in the new agency if the process is seen as artificially prolonged to promote certain interests and people. The authors call on Parliament to speed up the process and ensure the agency’s independence and functionality.
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