Gov’t dismantles Public Procurement Agency, creates new structure under Ministry of Finance

The duties and staff of the National Regulatory and Monitoring Authority for Public Procurement (ANRMAP) will be taken over by a new structure called the National Public Procurement Agency, to operate under the Ministry of Finance, the Government decided through an emergency ordinance.

According to Mediafax, the ordinance was placed on the agenda on Wednesday at the initiative of the Ministry of Finance, provided that PM Victor Ponta said at the beginning of the meeting that there is only one emergency ordinance on the agenda, related to the health sector.

The ordinance is justified by the fact that the lack of a “sustained and effective coordination” in public procurement may involve risks regarding the suspension of payments at horizontal level until the completion of certain actions aimed to lead to a systemic reform.

Another argument is that there has been identified a number of shortcomings in the public procurement system, such as the fact that it is operating entities with role of authority which sometimes overlap responsibilities, which administratively overload the operational framework, and decision-making responsibility of these entities is more diluted and that, therefore, a new institutional framework is a must, one to enable a better collaboration of the central public institution with responsibilities in public procurement with the potential participants in public procurement procedures.

The main objectives of the new agency are, in accordance with the law, the formulation at conception level, the promotion and implementation of the public procurement policy, the setting and the implementation of the verification and control system of the uniform implementation of laws and procedures in the field of public procurement, as well as monitoring the efficient operation of the public procurement system.

The agency will be led by a president with the rank of state secretary, appointed and dismissed by the prime minister, at the proposal of the minister of Finance.

The organization, operation, organizational structure and the maximum number of posts for the new agency will be approved within 90 days.