WITH DEFICIENCES OF VIEW
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On July 5, the Court of Accounts of the Republic of Moldova (CoARM) examined during an online meeting the Compliance Audit Report of public procurement within the system of the Ministry of Defense in 2019-2020.
As a result of the audit actions carried out, some problematic aspects were identified in the public procurement process within the system of the Ministry of Defense in 2019-2020. Also, the inconsistencies and gaps related to the regulatory framework applicable to the field, as well as the imperfections of the information system (AIS "SRPP"/MTender), including the causes affecting public procurement and the impact on the national public procurement system were clarified.
A significant problem identified is related to the strategic planning process established within the Ministry of Defense, which needs to be strengthened in order to ensure truthful planning of public procurement, so that they emerge from the real needs of the ministry. Thus, the legal framework stipulates that the planning of public procurement contracts results from the identification of public procurement contracts intended to meet the needs of goods, works or services, reflected in the procurement plan of the contracting authority.
The audit identified that within the Ministry of Defense there are reservations on the strategic vision in the aspect of developing the logistics insurance system and the military infrastructure, which does not contain the prioritization of the investment objectives to be achieved.
The procurement plans of the Ministry of Defense for 2019 and 2020, placed on the official website, are not complete and provide only centralized public procurement, as well as some low value procurement, made through the Agency of Resources and Heritage Administration of the Ministry of Defense (ARHAMD). The situation created is due to the lack of a regulatory framework for the organization and conduct of public procurement within the system of the Ministry of Defense and institutions/military units subordinated to the ministry in the public procurement process. This fact allowed the realization of public procurements within 18 institutions subordinated to the Ministry of Defense in the amount of 66.6 million lei in 2019 and 58.8 million lei in 2020, respectively, without publishing the procurement plans in the established manner.
Likewise, the Court of Accounts attests gaps and deficiencies of the normative framework applicable to the field of public procurement, as follows:
- the inconsistency between the normative acts in the aspect of the definition of public capital investments and capital repairs leads to the clear non-delimitation between recurrent and capital expenditures and to their erroneous classification;
- the non-harmonization of some provisions of the Public Procurement Law with the provisions of the Government’s Decisions for its implementation leads to the different treatment of the same situation by the contracting authorities;
- the quotas used in the elaboration of the estimate of expenses for the acquisition of works established by the Ministry of Economy and Infrastructures, differ significantly from the quotas applied by the bidders in the elaboration of the offer, a situation that leads to an exaggerated planning of budgetary resources, the use of public money and minimizing the risks of the contracting authority;
- the format of the model framework contract for the public procurement of works does not ensure the link between the procedure for designating the winner and the concluded contract;
- the regulatory framework applicable to low value purchases is ambiguous and incomplete.
In the context of the audit, the Court of Accounts mentions imperfections of the information system, namely, the automated information system "State Register of Public Procurement" (AIS "SRPP"/MTender) is not connected to the legal provisions in the field of public procurement.
The AIS "SRPP"/MTender is an online electronic system, accessible via the Internet, used for the electronic application of public procurement processes, as well as for the publication of invitations and announcements at national level, submission and evaluation of tenders, awarding, electronic signature of public procurement contracts. The owner of the AIS "SRPP"/MTender is the Ministry of Finance.
The main purpose of implementing the AIS „SRPP”/MTender is to increase the transparency of the public procurement process as a whole, to achieve a better value for money in public procurement procedures and to reduce transaction costs for all parties involved, thus contributing to ensuring a competitive and sustainable national procurement system.
The AIS „SRPP”/MTender is used to automate the processes of conducting public procurement procedures, but also the pre-procedure (planning) and post-procedure (monitoring) processes. At the same time, the AIS "SRPP"/MTender is to offer advanced data analysis tools, being developed according to the "everyone sees everything" principle.
During the audit, the audit team encountered deficiencies in viewing the information related to the procurement procedures carried out by the contracting authority, in particular in the tender evaluation section. Several problems were found in the following aspects:
- there is no correlation between the information registered on 3 public information platforms, all being managed by entities subordinated to the Ministry of Finance, because there are no controls of the systems;
- the lack of interconnection between the AIS „SRPP”/MTender and bap@tender.gov.md, does not ensure the publication in the legal terms on the information platform of the reports regarding the public procurement procedures carried out by the contracting authorities;
- the automated information system "State Register of Public Procurement" (AIS "SRPP"/MTender) is not connected to the legal provisions in the field of public procurement.
Although, the latest version of the system contains a number of updates and improvements, so far in the AIS "SRPP"/MTender can be found only the contracts concluded starting with 24.05.2021, i.e. a very limited number. In addition, the number of the procedure, the number of participants, etc. do not appear in the included contracts, thus it is impossible to identify the link between the procedure carried out and the concluded contract.
Moreover, given that the AIS "SRPP"/MTender is implemented and is mandatory for use from 2018, so far there is no User's Guide.
The Court of Accounts considers that, in order to allow a full implementation of electronic public procurement in the Republic of Moldova, it is necessary to develop electronic public procurement instruments, which will support the entire life cycle of public procurement, effectively ensuring market analysis, monitoring, verification and auditing of public procurement, in this regard being made recommendations to restore the audited area.
