The change is to be made because many companies, especially in the road infrastructure field, were making low price offers, thereby winning the tenders, but later insisting on extra funds from the authorities in order to finish the work, resulting in the final price being significantly higher than that proposed by competing bidders.

In the IT and health fields, criticism was often voiced that low-priced products were opted for in terms of procurement, with their quality turning out to be far lower and certain products being unusable. Furthermore, companies that obtained tenders but did not carry through on their commitments in the past two years will no longer be barred from bidding for new public contracts, according to the proposed changes.
New regulations regarding public acquisitions were approved during last week’s government session, and are to be enforced as soon as they are published in the Official Gazette. Thus, changes will be applied to ongoing proceedings, namely for companies preparing documentation for public contract tenders, according to the President of the National Authority for Public Procurement Regulation and Monitoring (ANRMAP), Cristina Trăilă. She added that new regulations will help Romanian legislation comply with European standards and prevent infringement proceedings.

The Chairman of the Board of Directors of S&T Romania IT service and software provider Dan Roman, said that changes proposed to the public procurement legislation are good, with the exception of that allowing companies that did not meet their obligations to bid for new contracts. “There are many companies that participate in tenders with prices far below the contract value, hoping that they can later prepare additional documentation or come up with all sorts of ways to raise prices.” Roman added that in the case of significant contracts, major and renowned companies should be awarded such contracts, because they have the credibility and ability to complete the work.

Last year, over 50 foreign companies were awarded contracts by state companies or by the authorities worth some €1 million each through the online public procurement program and the offline National Company for Highways and National Roads tender program.

The total value of deals signed in 2008 by the 52 companies in the ranking amounted to €1.85 billion.

Companies operating on the road infrastructure segment, such as Italian Astaldi, French Colas, or Spanish FCC Construccion, lead in the ranking.