Representatives of business entities and contracting authorities were familiarized with the new electronic procurement system M-Tender in a conference. Minister of Finance Octavian Armasu, in the opening of the event, said the electronic public procurement system enables to maximally reduce the intervention of the human factor in procurement process, eliminates corruption, increases transparency and enables to reduce costs by 15-20%, IPN reports.

Presenting the M-Tender system, deputy minister of finance Iurie Cicibaba said this will cover the whole procurement process – from tender contest planning and presentation of bids by companies to the implementation of procurement contracts.

“The bid will be introduced in the system by the business entity. There will be no need to go to the mayor’s office and look for the mayor to ask for an application form. Situations when the business entity disappears after signing the procurement contract and does not fulfill the obligations will be prevented,” said the deputy minister. The information in electronic format will be accessible to business entities, contracting authorities and civil society observers.

The first stage of piloting the electronic procurement system ends this month. M-Tender is used by seven contracting authorities on a trial basis. “I’m sure that the business entities and contracting authorities will be pleased with M-Tender. A lot of paper, time and money will be saved. For the contracting authorities, M-Tender means safety,” stated Iurie Cicibaba.

The piloting of the M-Tender system will continue in the course of this year. The electronic public procurement system will be applied as of 2018.

The conference was organized by the Ministry of Finance and the Public Procurement Agency with support from the EBRD.