The Foundation for the Defence of Citizens Against State Abuses calls on the Romanian Government and the Prime Minister's Chancellery to provide more transparency regarding the public procurement procedures carried out under the SAFE Program implemented by Romania. FACIAS's approach is determined by the magnitude of the financial commitments assumed by the Romanian state through this program, which exceed 16.6 billion euros, as well as by the major public interest in the use of these funds.
FACIAS is requesting the Government to publicly communicate the criteria used to select economic operators, how many operators were evaluated, whether there were any operators excluded and for what reasons.
FACIAS is also asking the Government to clarify whether the selection was based on objective and verifiable criteria, whether alternative solutions were analysed and whether prices, delivery times and contractual conditions were comparatively evaluated. At the same time, FACIAS asks the Government to explain whether any derogations from the usual procedures were necessary and proportionate, as well as whether the level of classification applied to the documents is justified.
In the request submitted to the Government, FACIAS is also requesting the list of all economic operators invited to participate in the procedures carried out under the SAFE Program, for each individual project, as well as the submitted offers or, where there is classified information or information exempted from public access, at least the purchase price and delivery terms proposed by each economic operator. FACIAS also requests, based on the law on free access to information of public interest, the publication of the procedures in which a single economic operator was invited to submit an offer.
The SAFE (Security Action for Europe) programme is a European instrument designed to finance urgent investments in the field of defence and security. Romania has the second largest allocation from this program at the European Union level, after Poland. In the case of our country, the financial stake is an enormous one, of over 16.6 billion euros, money that the Romanian state is now borrowing and which it will repay, from public money, for 30 years, starting 2035.