Romania's new government plans to change public procurement law

Romania’s new government plans to change the public procurement law in order to accelerate public investment. This objective was first announced last year by the Sorin Grindeanu cabinet but hasn’t yet been achieved. Changing the public procurement law will be one of the main objectives included in the governing program of the new Viorica Dancila cabinet, according to PSD leader Liviu Dragnea, local Profit.ro reported. “A work group will be rapidly formed, including representatives of the local authorities and specialists from ministries and the Public Procurement National Agency, who will meet in a weekend, in maximum two weeks, and come up with a public procurement law draft that simplifies procedures and remove the problems that have been blocking investments for years,” said Liviu Dragnea on Monday. The Mihai Tudose cabinet last year adopted an emergency ordinance that provides that public procurement procedures only apply to contracts over EUR 200,000 and that acquisitions under this level don’t need to go through the electronic public procurement system – SEAP. Several intiatives to change the public procurement law have been submitted to the Parliament by MPs of the ruling coalition. Some of them target the removal of the lowest price or lowest cost as the main criterion for awarding public contracts. editor@romania-insider.com