An emergency ordinance due to change the legislation covering public procurement, which the Romanian government has been boasting about for almost a week, includes a provision that may come against EU rules and the Romanian Constitution. It refers to taxing appeals against procurement procedures by 2% of the value of the contract.
HotNews.ro has demanded a point of view from the authority overseeing public procurements and was expecting an official answer on Friday.
Liviu Voinea, head of the Applied Economics Group, told HotNews.ro-Euractiv.ro that applying a tax for appeals against procurement procedures comes against EU regulations. He warned that it might lead to an infringement procedure from the European Commission and that free access to justice was a constitutional right.
Consultant Ciprian Nicolae explained that the idea behind such a tax would be to prevent a spiraling wave of appeals against procedures but that the solution might not be the most appropriate.
