News from the National Agency for Public Procurement

Public procurement, a dynamic and unstable from law perspective area, raises problems in applying and interpreting legislation to both contracting authorities and participating companies as bidders. The vagueness and ambiguities of the law are manifested both in the regulation of the manner in which tenders are drafted and submitted, as well as in the enforcement of appeals.

Noticing, or maybe being noticed, of this issue, the National Agency for Public Procurement (NAPP) had a commendable initiative.

Thus, a new order issued by the National Agency for Public Procurement entered into force on May 26, 2017. Order 121/2017 provides that NAPP may provide methodological counseling for the interpretation and application of public procurement legislation. This counseling is provided through the NAPP General Department for Regulation, Methodological Coordination and Operational Support (GDRMCOS). The stated aim is to ensure “an unified framework for the application of legislative provisions”.

In this respect, NAPP will perform interpretations in the following ways:

• a) publication of the interpretations, within 7 working days, in the specific section of “The Case Library / Frequently Asked Questions” on the NAPP website and in the online tool available at achizitiipublice.gov.ro, by collecting and inventorying the aspects reported to NAPP, as well as the responses / points of view from the current activity and their selection on topics of interest; 
• b) drawing of ex officio notifications / guidance for best practices and / or other horizontal aspects that may have a significant impact on those regulatory areas and their publication in the instrument referred to point a);
• c) drawing of responses to contracting authorities / entities and / or legal entities that do not qualify as contracting authority or to other economic operators, if the answer is not found in the tool referred to point a), together with its inclusion in the tool referred to in a).

It would be extremely useful for the Romanian business environment that NAPP’s approach should lead to the development of a code of best practices, containing solutions to the problems that arise in practice and to act as a guide from which the actors in this field cannot derogate themselves.

If you will have any issues about how to understand and apply the procurement law in the future, we invite you to contact us by email at office@paulopol.ro and we will provide a clarification notice for you in accordance with the procedure reviewed by this Order.