American Chamber of Commerce in Romania

CNSC explains the complaint procedure
in the context of recent changes of the public procurement legislation

Bucharest, January 27, 2010: The American Chamber of Commerce in Romania (AmCham Romania) and the National Council for Solving Complaints (CNSC) have organized the seminar on „Complaints procedure before CNSC in the context of recent changes of the public procurement legislation” designed for members of the business community. The second edition of the seminar organized on January 27 in Bucharest was initiated by the AmCham Romania working group on Public Procurement and Structural Funds.

During the seminar, the CNSC president Mihai Prisacariu presented the main aspects signaled in practice by CNSC in 2009 and addressed the issues raised by the participants regarding the complaints’ solving, clarifications regarding delayed complaints, complaints grounds regarding the procurement documentation acceped by CNSC, qualification and selection criteria, specific procedures, reasons for rejecting the offer or evaluating an offers as non-winner, as well as frequent mistakes in formulating and submitting complaints, to help avoid them. The Government was represented at the event by Minister Daniela Nicoleta Andreescu, Government Secretary General.

„Good feedback following the first edition of the seminar generated the idea that continuing to organize similar events would be very useful to the business community, and on the other hand, the public release of the Council’s remarkable results in 2009 proves that Romania has today at least one coherent body, which can serve as an amplifier for the absorbtion of European funds. Thus, in 2009 compared to 2008, CNSC registered a 41,45% increase in the volume of submitted complaints, with a total number of solved cases of 9.019, that is a 38,39% increase. This immense working volume was achieved while observing the legal deadline for complaints solving, which is 19 days in average” mentioned the CNSC president.

On this ocassion, participants had the opportunity to advance their proposals for ensuring an unitary practice in the complaints solving process, increasing transparency in the procedures, as well as for harmonizing the interpretation differences between CNSC and other public procurement authorities.

„AmCham Romania members are interested to contribute to the improvement of the legislative framework related to public procurement, thus providing the authorities their expertize accumulated both in the local and international business environment. We salute CNSC’s availability to organize this seminar which represents an answer to our members’ request, and we hope to continue a good collaboration with CNSC. Eventually, the transparency of such an insititution in the relation with the business community and its harmonization with the other public procurement authorities will lead to an improvement in the absorption of the EU funds, which is critical considering the acute need for financing the Romanian economy, a priority objective also assumed by the current governement” stated the AmCham Romania president, Sorin Mîndruþescu.

The American Chamber of Commerce in Romania (AmCham Romania) is a non-political, not for profit organization founded in 1993 by U.S. investors. Currently, AmCham Romania has 300 members – U.S., International and local companies, representing investments above 10 billion USD, and more than 150.000 created jobs. AmCham Romania is affiliated to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a member of the European Council of American Chambers of Commerce.
AmCham Romania is firmly engaged in assisting its members in identifying the issues that the business community faces and in promoting the solutions recommended by our members to the Romanian authorities. AmCham Romania members are invited to actively contribute with their experize in areas such as taxation, competition, state-aid and single market access, energy, environment, education, labor market, healthcare, ICT, public procurement, within specific working groups. (www.amcham.ro).
The National Council for Solving Complaints is a body with administrative-jurisdictional activity which was established in 2007 based on Emergency Ordinance no. 34 dated April 19, 2006. The Council is competent to resolve the complaints lodged within the awarding procedure, before the contract is concluded, through its specialized Chambers. (www.cnsc.ro).
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