Romania's PM wants special law for strategic public procurement

Romania’s Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu wants a bill that simplifies public procurement for strategic investments. “The Economy Minister will come up with a draft law to simplify strategic investments in the shortest time. Most of them will relate to the (Transport) Master Plan. Appeals to appeals are not okay. It’s our duty to fix a legal framework that will be accepted by the European Commission,” said Grindeanu, reports local Hotnews.ro. The Environment Minister Daniel Constantin recently spoke about amending the law on public procurement. He mainly referred to appeals filed in public tenders. At the moment, a company that loses a public tender can challenge the result at the National Council for Solving Complaints (CNSC) and if the CNSC rules against it, it can go to court. The state authority that initiated the tender can’t sign the contract until the dispute is settled in court, which can take a lot. The Government wants public authorities to be able to sign the contracts with the tender winners, if CNSC rejects the challenges, even if the challengers go to court. The current law on public procurement was adopted in May 2016. editor@romania-insider.com