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Transparency International Romania demands information on state of emergency procurements to be made public
Transparency International Romania asks the institutions of the central and local public administration to publicly release the information regarding the procurements made during the state of emergency, and the competent authorities to verify the legality of the contracts signed in the last two months.
"Given the many questions and suspicions raised both in the country and internationally about the award of various contracts with public funds under the pretext of the state of emergency, Transparency International Romania requests the central and local administration to make public all the information regarding the procurements made in the last two months, in compliance with the legislation in force," the organization said in a release this Monday.
According to the cited source, as far as direct public procurements are concerned, at least the following information needs to be released: the purchase requisition, the explanatory note on the choice of the award by direct procurement, the explanatory note estimating the value of the contract, the justification for the option to purchase from companies that are not registered in the electronic public procurement system - SICAP.
This exercise of transparency will allow the monitoring of the procurements made, including by the citizens who are directly interested in the way the public funds are being managed. Conversely, the institutions that will not respond to this call will show opacity and the intention to keep under the lid certain decisions taken under the pretext of urgency, says Transparency International Romania.
"At the same time, we ask the institutions with control and anti-corruption powers, such as the Court of Accounts and the National Anticorruption Directorate, to check the way the public resources have been managed during this period, respectively to verify the legality of the procurements made during the state of emergency. Transparency International Romania closely follows the way public institutions comply with the relevant legislation and transparency criteria and will publicly report the all identified irregularities, thus joining similar steps taken by the global anti-corruption movement Transparency International to report vulnerabilities and increase social responsibility in the context of the rising risks of corruption amid the COVID-19 pandemic," the release states.