Open Contracting - good governance in public tenders

Motivation

More than a quarter of public procurement in Romania is suspected of corruption or fraud, according to a report by the National Agency for Public Procurement. What is the cost of corruption? Statistics say that between 5.4 and 12 billion Euros - public funds wasted in public tenders where goods and services are bought and overpriced, often from companies enrolled in government contracts.

The Covid-19 crisis has only highlighted these vulnerabilities deeply rooted in the Romanian system. Moreover, swift legislative measures to combat the pandemic have further encouraged borderline or illegal practices. Many authorities abused their ability to conclude direct contracts, even if they had nothing to do with preventing and combating the spread of the new coronavirus. The effects were seen in official reports, but also in the investigations of journalists who showed how the contracting authorities hurried to do a kind of "express shopping" for goods whose value to the public is questionable.

Many of these problems can be tackled by applying open contracting principles and standards, a concept to which more than 50 countries and cities around the world have already adhered.

Goals

The open contracting concept is is a set of rules and practices aimed at greater transparency and participation in all stages of the public procurement process. The aim of this project is to reduce corruption in public procurement by introducing this concept to the public and decision makers.

More precisely:

  • we'll investigate the needs and flaws in legislation regarding transparency and public participation through comparing this with examples of good practices from French municipalities
  • we'll initiate a dialogue between civic society and policy makers and try to find MPs who are interested in introducing this concept into legislation
  • we'll initiate a public awareness campaign about what open contracting is and its benefits
  • we'll monitor the implementation of open contracting in legislation

Partners

We're launching this project in partnership with the Open Contracting Partnership, an organization with international level activity and with essential expertise for the implementation of the concept of open contracting.

The CMO will support us both financially and through technical assistance and will help us identify and analyze examples of good practice in the field.

Financing

The "Open Contracting - promoting good governance in public tenders using the French model" project is financially supported in part by The French Embassy in Romania / The French Institute through a grant of 4.850 Euro offered during a project contest: Support for civic society on the Rule of Law topic.

Also, the project also benefits from a 5.000 USD funding provided by the Open Contracting Partnership.

Calendar

The project will take place over a period of 5 months.
1st of August 2021 - 31st of December 2021

Project implemented with the help of the French Embassy in Romania / The French Institute in Romania

other Funky projects

logo-200
Public Money
home-icon-bigger
On Guard
App for Health workers
logo-3
Museum of communism
A mini-Wiki for recent history
cover
Constituția ilustrată
romania-interviuri-1
Cetățeni + Primărie = ❤
atentielanastere quickfinder
Atenție la naștere
bdfn quickfinder
Fake News Bulletin
caravana civica quickfinder
Caravana civică
soap
Transparency in times of crisis
logo educatie civica
Civic education
open contracting quickfinder
Open contracting
Transparent and responsible public tenders
logo-bdb-512
Bucharest Bulletin
Local data journalism
80east quickfinder
80east
energie termica logo
Thermal energy
cover-raport
Anti-Western propaganda
johnnymates_ukraine_war_a_year_later_disinformation_03bf6ab2-2cbc-4aac-9754-562722677cd7 copy 2
Dezinformarea, la un an de război🇺🇦
BROD_logo-300x300
BROD
Bulgarian-Romanian Observatory of Digital Media
image-1 copy
Navigating Romania
CERV EEAD Launch Newsletter Banner-2
Empowering Europeans Against Disinformation
rf1 quickfinder
The Funky Republic
A network of local NGOs
record logo
ReCoRD
logo-factual
Factual
Fact-checking political statements
logo-onorata-instanta
Onorată instanță
logo-piatadespaga
Piaţa de șpagă
logo-7ani
7 Ani de Acasă
logo-farabariere
Politică fără bariere
maricorupti_logo
Mari corupţi
logo-nuvasuparati
NuVăSupărați.info