Increasing the threshold from which CTE approval is required, from 2 million lei, excluding VAT, to 5 million lei, excluding VAT, for purchases financed from European or national funds and including an IT component, will reduce the process of public approvals to 4 weeks procurement, the Ministry of Digitization claims in a response to HotNews.ro.

The Ministry of Digital Technologies, headed by Bohdan Ivan (PSD), sent HotNews.ro the reasons why the government recently canceled the technical opinion of the Economic and Technical Committee on all IT purchases worth less than one million euros.

Many projects can be affected by undue delays

The Ministry claims that most procurements in the public sector have an IT component and obtaining this approval would lead to unjustified delays and possible loss of European funds from PNRR and POCIDIF.

• Here is the ministry’s explanation in full:

“The financing programs, with the help of which we will build the digital infrastructure of the Romanian state and develop electronic public services, have a very tight implementation schedule. In order to get a concrete benefit from the funds from PNRR and POCIDIF, it was necessary to optimize the internal procedures of the administration.

Difficulties in using these funds could lead to cascading general delays in accessing the funds, in the effective implementation of the projects, and in the use by Romanians of the results of these projects.

The Technical-Economic Committee of the Information Society (CTE) is a non-incorporated body that assists the Digitalization Authority of Romania in developing and monitoring the implementation of government policies in the field of information technology and information society.

CTE approves technical specifications related to feasibility studies, technical reports and specifications as follows:

• a) Before the start of the procedure for awarding a public procurement contract, in the case of financing projects that have a separate component for information technology and communication with a nominal or total cost of more than 2,000,000 lei, excluding VAT, financed from national funds;
• b) before submitting a request for financing to the competent authorities, as well as before the start of the procedure for awarding a government procurement contract, in the case of financing projects that have a specific information technology and communication component with a nominal or cumulative cost of more than 2,000,000 lei, excluding VAT, financed from European funds.

Given that in current public sector activity, most procurements aimed at developing the administrative capacity of institutions contain an IT component, many projects may be affected by undue delays in the timing of procurement and, implicitly, in the operational delivery of outcomes for citizens. .

Increasing the threshold from which CTE approval is required from 2 million lei, excluding VAT, to 5 million lei, excluding VAT, for purchases financed from European or national funds and including an IT component, aimed at reducing the bureaucracy associated with these procedures. .

By raising this threshold, we saved 2 to 4 weeks in the public procurement process.

CTE approves not only investments in infrastructures and IT systems, but absolutely all investments that had an IT component, regardless of their final purpose.

We were able to optimize procurement intervals and eliminate a procedure that was often only ancillary to specific project deliverables.

It was important to reduce the time required for customers to complete these procedures, especially in the context where EU grants have a strict implementation schedule.

Through the GD offered by MCID, we offer more flexibility to customers, reducing the time needed to implement projects,” the Ministry of Digital says.

That the Ministry responds to those who claim that this measure will facilitate embezzlement and embezzlement of public funds

• “Legislation on public procurement remains in force and must be strictly followed when conducting procurements carried out at the expense of European funding. All customers, as before, are responsible for the correctness of their own purchases.
• Contracts will be concluded more easily, they will have to comply with the public procurement process. With this DG, we eliminated an additional step in public procurement procedures,” the Ministry of Digital Affairs also notes.

​For all public contracts financed from the budget or EU funds and which have an IT&C component of less than 5 million lei (excluding VAT), it will no longer be necessary to obtain the opinion of the Technical and Economic Committee (CTE) before starting the procurement procedure, according to the Government Decision , published on Friday, September 15, in the Official Gazette.

• Read more: Green light for IT purchases worth less than one million euros without technical approval of the Technical and Economic Committee – GD published in the Official Gazette

Photo source: Yakobchuk / Dreamstime.com