
Economic agents challenging public procurement will have to provide a financial guarantee of up to 100,000 lei.
This is stipulated by the draft amendments to the Law on Public Procurement, which is registered in parliament as a legislative initiative. In particular, the law proposes to supplement the appeal procedures. Today, any person interested in obtaining a public procurement contract and who believes that a right provided for by law has been violated, as a result of which he or she has suffered or may suffer damage, has the right to appeal against the act in accordance with the procedure established by this law. The law proposes to introduce an appeal guarantee, i.e. a sum of money deposited by the appellant to ensure the validity of the arguments in the appeal. The amount of the appeal guarantee will amount to 1% of the estimated value of the public procurement procedure, but not more than 100 thousand lei. The economic agent is obliged to deposit the guarantee to the treasury account of the National Agency for Dispute Resolution simultaneously with the submission of the complaint. The guarantee is returned to the complainant's bank account within 3 working days after the decision on the filed complaint. According to the proposed mechanism, the procuring authority will be able to eliminate deficiencies and errors indicated by the complainant, informing other participants in the procurement through the AIS "State Register of Public Procurement" or other means of communication. The written procedure for consideration of complaints is also regulated. Thus, public hearings will be mandatory only if the parties explicitly request a meeting or the Agency deems it necessary to hold such a meeting, while in cases where appeals are filed on high-profile procedures with social impact, civil society representatives may request the National Agency for Dispute Resolution to hold public hearings. The draft law is intended to optimize the procedures for the examination of complaints and the actual recovery of violated rights, as well as to ensure the successful execution of awarded public procurement contracts. The bill must be approved by Parliament. //14.07.2023 - InfoMarket.