1.National Strategy on Public Procurement: background and methodology
Developing the National Public Procurement Strategy is a critical step in reforming the public procurement system, because it establishes a common vision of reforming this system, in a key moment where the new PP Directives are proposingto the Member States the transition to a new paradigm where public procurement represents the main tool to unlock economic growth in Europe.
The National Public Procurement Strategy provides a comprehensive roadmap for the reforms in public procurement and enables the Government of Romania, through Ministry of Public Finance - National Agency for Public Procurement to initiate and perform sequential and sustained measures for bringing in good governance and strengthening the procurement systems.
This Strategy is aimed at least at the following categories of national key stakeholders: Government of Romania, ANAP, contracting authorities or central purchasing units, civil servants and contractual staff involved in public procurement and in the delivery of services to the citizens, economic operators.
The main Romanian stakeholders in the field of public procurement have been invited to participate in the process of elaboration of the Strategy by Prime Minister Decision no. 218/2014 , issued in June 2014 . Through this decision it was established an Inter-ministerial Committee together with a technical working group. A structured dialogue on the Strategy elaboration was also conducted during July 2014-June 2015 between European Commission and Romania in the context of the implementation of the new public procurement directives and of the Partnership Agreement with Romania on using EU Structural and Investment Funds for growth and jobs in 2014-2020. Throughout this process, the Government of Romania was supported by the European Investment Bank and the World Bank.
The measures clustered within the 5 pillars of the Strategy result from a cyclic communication process, as follows: information gathering, analysis, options development and appraisal, consultation within the working group, structured dialogue with EC and preliminary consultations with stakeholders – where applicable, reflection and fixing the measure.
The process of defining the measures was iterative and currently remains open for the integration of new information during the course of the implementation of the strategy. In particular the measures addressing the CPBs operating model and piloting the list of approved economic operators in the area of road infrastructure are to be operationalized based on the results of the analyses included as measures in the Strategy.
Development of the Strategy was based on the activity performed bythe nominated technical working group. The Inter-ministerial Committee was organized whenever it was necessary for political decisions to be taken or to establish guidelines for the technical working group.
The reform of the Romanian Public Procurement System engages the Government of Romania andall relevant stakeholders with the scope of driving improvements in the public procurement which are included in the Public Procurement Strategy as well as building on existing strengths and eliminating identified shortcomings, including risk areas for corruption and conflict of interest and move procurement policy and practice to a strategic approach. The exercise of PP Strategy elaboration involved an assessment of existing procurement structures, policies, procedures and skills. Following the assessment process, appropriate procurement policy, procedures and practices were identified, which are expected to lead to (best) value for money outcomes over time. Therefore, the Strategy is to be implemented via improvements of the Romanian Public Procurement System functions, adopting optimal procurement structures, effective purchasing policies and procedures as well as the professionalization of public procurement staff.
2.ROMANIAN PUBLIC PROCUREMENT SYSTEM: THE WAY FORWARD
The Romanian Public Procurement Strategy is expected to create the frame which aims achieving best value for money taking into account the probity and accountability. The responsibility for ensuring value for money outcomes rests with individual contracting authorities.
Public Procurement System represents a social system, consisting of interrelationships between procurement professionals, contracting authorities, and institutions in charge with the management of the system while forming a coherent whole. As any social system, it benefits of vision, mission and goals reflected in the Strategy. These are further presented.
2.1.Vision
Building and sustain (and continuously improve) an efficient and effective Public Procurement System which contributes to the improvement of services delivered to the actual and future generation of Romanians and support fulfilment of Europe 2020 Strategy.
2.2.Mission
To professionalize the public procurement process so that it ensures transparency, efficiency, integrity and value for money to support national growth and development.
2.3.Objectives
Achieve value for money on behalf of the specific stakeholders (taxpayers,shareholders or society at large), by developing a framework for public procurement with the following features:
a)Stable and predictable legislative framework, oriented to the principles of public procurement,
b)Legislation embedded with guidelines available on the Internet,
c)coherent and simplified institutionalsystem, with streamlinedfunctionsand responsibilities, avoiding duplication,
d)simplified and improved procurement process, ensuring legality and quality,
e)internal and external control systems, efficient, quality and substance-oriented, ensuring best practices and integrity,
f)Increasing the efficiency and transparency of public procurement,
g)implement current trends (green procurement, energy efficiency, socially responsible procurement, e-procurement, support of SMEs) in line with Europe 2020 Strategy,
h)professionalization of the public procurement system
To achieve the above goals and to trigger a cultural shift, the following reforms are proposed under each chapter as described below.
3.Chapters
This strategy comprises five chapters as follows:
- Chapter 1: The quality of the legal framework, including the assessment of the solutions for transposing the new PP Directives into Romanian legislation,
- Chapter 2: Overall coherence and effectiveness of the institutional framework,
- Chapter 3: The legality and quality of the procurement process,
- Chapter 4: The capacity of the contracting authorities, in particular the professionalization and the integrity,
- Chapter 5: Monitoring and supervisory functions of the Public Procurement System in Romania
The five chapters are complementing each other, establishing a coherent framework. It should be stressed that improving the public procurement system does not depend on a single,isolated measure, but on the implementation of this Strategy as a whole.
4.Implementation arrangements
The owner of the Public Procurement Reform in Romania is the Government of Romania and the PP Council – Inter-ministerial Committee.
The responsible entity for the implementation of the Strategy is the National Agency for Public Procurement, established through the GEO no. 13/2015.
An unit will be established at the ANAP level in charge with day to day coordination of the Strategy implementation. The approach used is program management for the Strategy as a whole and Project Management for each Pillar of the Strategy. The coordination arrangements, staffing, detailed functions and activities will be established by the Government Decision that will be adopted in the coming period based on GEO no. 13/2015.
Other key PP stakeholders will be involved in the implementation of the Strategy as required by the specific actions included under the different Pillars.
Given the experiencegainedfrom the functioning ofthe working groupestablishedfordeveloping the Strategy, the main risks related to implementation can be summarizedas follows:
- The need for further harmonization of the interests of different stakeholders in the implementation of the Strategy, a process carried out in an extremely dynamic environment,
- The need of close monitoring in order to boost the implementation of all actions outlined in the strategy.
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