The Government Procurement Review

The second edition of The Government Procurement Review brings even wider geographic coverage than the first edition, now covering six continents and 24 national chapters (including the EU chapter).

In Romania, public procurement contracts are essentially regulated by Government Emergency Ordinance No. 34/2006 on the award of public procurement contracts, public works concession contracts and service concession contracts (GEO No. 34/2006). Specific sector regulation and clarifications of GEO No. 34/2006 can be found in the secondary legislation, consisting of government decisions and National Authority for the Regulation and Monitoring of Public Procurement (ANRMAP) orders. GEO No. 34/2006 transposes EC directives on public procurement and creates the legal framework to secure compliance with the principles of contract awarding in public procurement: non-discrimination, equal treatment, mutual recognition, transparency, proportionality, optimum use of funds and undertaking of liability.

Discussions are being held on the possibility of changing the procedure to solve disputes in connection with the awarding of public procurement contracts. The possibility of eliminating the administrative stage and closing down the NCSC is being considered, with all the disputes in this sector to fall under the jurisdiction of general law courts. This measure is intended to avoid as much as possible suspicions around how such challenges are solved; however, it is at least doubtful how general law courts may react to such a significant increase in workload and, also to the highly technical nature of the supporting arguments. According to a press release of the ANRMAP, Romania intends to implement the New Directives through separate enactments corresponding to each of the recently adopted Directives. However, a deadline for the transposition of the New Directives into national law has not been yet established by the Romanian authorities.

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