Ex ante Control

By Alina Stoica

New rules on the ex ante control in public procurement procedures

Recently, Emergency Government Ordinance no. 23/2020 (EGO 23/2020) brought significant changes to the public procurement rules. One of the most controversial amendments concerns the ex ante control, performed by National Agency for Public Procurement (NAPP). The ex ante control of NAPP entails the overall assessment of the public procurement documentation prior to them published by the contracting authority.

Pursuant to EGO 23/2020:

 (a) ex-ante control becomes mandatory, with some exemptions (i.e. the same as in the previous legislation, for example: ex ante control is not required in case of negotiated procedure based on urgency);

(b) a max. of 10% of all relevant public procurement procedures shall be subject of the ex ante control (selection thereof will be made by ANAP following its own methodology). Even though the new law entails twice more verified procedures by ANAP, the duration of ex ante controls has shortened.

While ex ante control directly impacts the contracting authorities, the new legal amendments are expected to prolong the time spread out of the public procurement procedures in Romania.