The basic principles guiding the Ministry of Finance in designing and implementing public procurement policies are ensuring a functional, efficient and transparent legal framework for public procurement, including its harmonisation it with EU Directives and international standards. Public procurement policy formulation and promotion is one of the core functions of the Ministry of Finance.
Public procurement is mainly governed by Law No.131 of July 3, 2015, but there are also other legislative and normative acts applied.
The Ministry of Finance elaborated the 2016-2020 Strategy for the Development of the Public Procurement System and the Action Plan on its implementation, approved by Government Decision No. 1332 of December 14, 2016, in order to implement the provisions of the EU-Moldova Association Agreement and the World Trade Organisation Government Procurement Agreement.
At the same time, in order to implement the Law on Public Procurement, 5 draft Government Decisions were drafted, three of which were finalised, according to the procedures specified by Law No. 317-XV of July 18, 2003 on the normative acts of the Government and other central and local public administration authorities, and are to be submitted to the Government for approval. Two other draft decisions are in the public consultation stage.
The Service for Public Procurement Policies within the Ministry of Finance is responsible for the elaboration and promotion of the legislative and regulatory frameworks on public procurement.
The Public Procurement Agency is the specialised body subordinated to the Ministry of Finance, which ensures the implementation of the public procurement policy.
On November 30, 2016, a Memorandum was signed between the Ministry of Finance, the Public Procurement Agency, the Electronic Governance Centre, several business associations, NGOs and IT companies that will offer trading platforms for public procurement electronic format. This project is a unique partnership that aims to develop e-Procurement in the Republic of Moldova as a transparency tool in procurement procedures.
The main objective of the Memorandum is to implement and test a comprehensive system in line with the open source principles, open data and open contract data as main concepts. The electronic system will act as a multi-platform for the public sector that engages all stakeholders.
In this regard, Order No. 30 of February 10, 2017 of the Minister of Finance "On Piloting the Public Procurement System for Low Value Contracts", according to which the Ministry of Finance and all subordinate administrative authorities shall apply the e-procurement system in pilot regime for low value public procurement.