Presentation by Olesea Stamate, Moldova (ENG) Second SIGMA Regional ENP East Conference on Public Procurement, Kyiv 29-30 May 2018

1. © OECD
SECOND SIGMA REGIONAL ENP EAST CONFERENCE ON PUBLIC
PROCUREMENT
Civil society - guardians
of public funds in Moldova
Olesea STAMATE
Association for Efficient and Responsible Governance
Republic of Moldova
Kiev, May 30th, 2018

2. How we started
• Step one: thorough review of the legislation
• Step two: analysis of several tens of public
procurement files
• Step three: developing a methodology for
monitoring public procurement
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3. How we started
• To start, one needs a minimum access to
information on public procurement;
• If this exists, selection criteria or risk indicators
need to be established (such as: under
threshold, small value, same company,
additional agreements );
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4. Our experience
• Our monitoring team: AGER core team, 10 local
NGOs and investigative journalists.
• Back in 2015 we still had an old law, and
conflicting provisions on access to information.
• 7 cases in the court (just one has finalized by
now).
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5. Some examples
• Millions lost on PP for which just 10%-15% of the
costs were budgeted (e.g. National Environmental
Fund);
• Contracts fully paid, while the object was only
70% finalized and for years not working;
• Frequent problems with tender documents;
• Conflict of interests are not a rare phenomenon;
• Dividing procurements is very often.
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6. Financing political campaigns
from PP money
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7. Financing political campaigns
from PP money
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8. Our experience
• The new law provides that the minutes of the PP
procedure are a public document, which is by far
not enough for a good analysis;
• Yet, it opened a possibility for civil society to
participate directly in the working groups for PP;
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9. Our experience
We still face restrictions to accessing information, refusals to
be included into public procurement WGs …AND we keep on
insisting!!!
(never-ending letters, addressing higher institutions, writing to PPA,
publishing in media, including locally, organizing public events and press
conferences, etc.)
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10. Findings
Elimination of ex-ante control by the PPA
numerous cases of faulted specifications as well
as disordered registry of concluded contracts.
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11. Findings
• Exemplul cu piata divizata din alimentatie
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12. Challenges
Now it is difficult to search through the PPA
database, so we mainly focus on monitoring current
procedures;
Civil society is CANNOT submit a complaint to the
Complaints Solving Agency or to the Competition
Council.
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13. Our achievements
We succeeded to:
• Re-open illegally closed procedures and finalize
works;
• Stop or re-launch procedures considered unlawful;
• Break the ice in terms of access to information;
• Discipline contracting authorities;
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14. Our achievements
• Contribute to the dismissal of several civil servants
responsible for illegal procurements;
• The local NGOs are regarded as experts in PP and often
asked for advice by the contracting authorities;
• Help to the improve of the legal framework;
• Make public procurement a hot topic in the media;
• Engage active citizens in overseeing public procurement;
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15. What is needed
 Sufficient access to information;
 Transparency of the whole process;
 Means to stop illegal procedures (if there is no
public authority to do ex-ante control);
 Effective accountability (incl. sanctioning)
mechanisms;
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16. What is needed
 The law should not allow the entity which
participated in designing the specifications to
participate in the tender;
 Partner and engage with journalists, business and
active citizens;
 Great to have an e-procurement system!
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Source: https://www.ppra.go.tz/index.php/component/phocagallery/5-procurement-humor/detail/93-
bidhaa?tmpl=component&Itemid=1

18. Thank you!
Questions?
Comments?
Volunteers?
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