Expert-Grup

Public Procurement in Vocational Schools in Chișinău: Problems and Solutions

Wednesday, 28 December 20165920 views
Public Procurement in Vocational Schools in Chișinău: Problems and Solutions

Automatically translated summary. The full article is available in Romanian.

The Independent Think Tank “Expert-Grup” has recently assessed the public procurement process in vocational schools in the municipality of Chișinău. The analysis identified a set of problems, gaps and risks, chiefly stemming from officials’ insufficient knowledge of the existing regulatory framework and from missing key documents in procurement files.

The major risks are collusion between economic operators and favouritism by contracting authorities. At the Centre of Excellence in Light Industry and Vocational School No. 7, three legally related companies constantly win catering contracts. Elsewhere, two related companies won works contracts with bids identical to the cost estimate, while other competitors were disqualified. In early 2016, Vocational School No. 9 signed about ten low-value food contracts worth over MDL 460,000 instead of holding a public tender, contrary to the law. Vocational School No. 10 had no procurement files in its archive for the last two years.

The report recommends strengthening schools’ institutional capacity to plan and carry out procurement in line with the law. It also urges the Competition Council to investigate cases with a risk of collusion and law enforcement bodies to examine the situation at School No. 10.

View the original article in Romanian