18th of May 2020,

Bucharest

Press release

Transparency in public procurements is essential

for keeping the public institutions credibility


Transparency International Romania requests the institutions of the central and local public administration to publicly disclose the information regarding the procurements made during the state of emergency, also asks the competent authorities to verify the legality of the contracts signed in the last two months.

Given that in nationally and internationally plans are many questions and suspicions about how various pubic funded contracts were awarded under the pretext of emergency state, Transparency International Romania asks the central and local administration to disclosure all the information regarding the public procurements that occurred in the last two months, in compliance with the legislation in force. There is necessary at least the following information: Necessary paper; Supporting note regarding the choice of the award procedure by direct procurement; The justifying note by which the value of the contract is estimated; Justification of the option to purchase from economic operators who are not registered in SICAP.

Through this transparency exercise, the purchases made will be able to be monitored even by the citizens directly interested in the way the public funds are administered. Instead, the institutions that will not respond to this approach, will show opacity and the intention to hide from citizens certain decisions taken under the pretext of urgency.

At the same time, we ask the control and anti-corruption institutions, such as the Court of Accounts and the National Anticorruption Directorate, to carry out a control of the management of public resources, respectively to verify the legality of acquisitions during the state of emergency.

Transparency International Romania pays special attention to the way in which public institutions comply with the legislation in the field and the transparency criteria and will publicly signal the notified irregularities. Thus, we join similar initiatives taken by the global anti-corruption movement Transparency International, to signal vulnerabilities and increase social responsibility, in the context of increasing corruption risks during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Board of directors

Transparency International Romania

 

Contact:

Georgeta Filip – public relation specialist, georgeta.filip@transparency.org.ro;

Victor Alistar – Board of directors member, victor.alistar@transparency.org.ro;