Electronic System for Public Acquisitions (e-licitatie) - ROMANIA -

1. General Inspectorate for Communications and IT Electronic System for Public Acquisitions (e-licitatie) - ROMANIA - Ion MARCU Director e-Government Services ion.marcu@e-licitatie.ro

2. General info • General Inspectorate for Communications and IT (IGCTI) is the operator of national e-government services • Key e-gov services: World Summit on the Information Societyawardee - the national e-gov portal, European eGovernment Conference (Como) best practice -e-licitatie, governmental PKI • Legislation in force regarding: electronic signature, e-commerce, electronic public acquisitions, electronic identity card, national e-gov services, electronic payment of taxes, data privacy & protection

3. E-licitatie in numbers • Set-up cost: 100 000 Euro • Operating since March, 2002 • 3 000 suppliers, 1 000 contracting authorities • 80 categories of goods, thousands of products • 335 000 reverse auctions (with or without prequalifications), 12 national programmes • Over 100 mil euro in direct price savings • 20 000 visitors per month

4. Technical sheet • Web-based system • Architected by the Ministry of Communications and IT • Developed by a romanian software company • A mix of Microsoft and open source technology • Security based on digital certificates and encryption

5. Success factors and pitfalls • Strong political support, low pilot implementation costs, graduality, compulsoriness (for the specified categories of goods and contracting authorities, the system is mandatory by law), nationwide training sessions, ease of use, low tariffs (suppliers - 0.25 euro/auction, contracting authorities - 0.25 – 0.5 % from contract value), transparency • The quality of goods is painfully correlated with the quality of the tender dossier, lack of networks of excellence in the public procurement arena, the novelty of e-procurement makes it a tough buy-in idea, the lever effect – bigger savings for the state less profit for companies (must be compensated by a generously proportioned market)

6. Extended e-licitatie • To be launched this month

7. Extended e-licitatie in numbers • Set-up cost: 3.5 mil Euro • 20 servers with a combined power of more than 350 000 certified tpc-c • Designed to handle 100 000 auctions per day • Over 50 TB in storage capacity • 6 racks of equipments

8. Technical sheet • Web-based system • Architected by IGCTI • Developed by a romanian consortium • A mix of Microsoft and open source technology • Security based on digital certificates and/or user name and password (over SSL), digital signatures, various encryption schemes, anti-robot mechanisms protection • Extended use of XML & Web Services • Electronic payments

9. STAKEHOLDERS • Contracting Authorities (public institutions that have to use SEAP, according to Romanian laws) • Suppliers (any company) • System’s administrators • Other entities: control and supervising authorities, notaries, evaluators, banks) • General public

10. AUCTION TYPES • Standard goods and services: • – open • – restricted • Catalog based public acquisitions: • – direct • – request for quotation based • Complex goods and services: • – open • – restricted

11. Standard Goods and Services(Standard Reverse Auction) • Large number of auctions • Many suppliers • Can be organized both for a single product or for packages • Several Contracting Authorities can initiate together an auction (demand aggregation)

12. Open Standard Goods and Services Auctions(without pre-qualification) • Any registered supplier can submit an offer • The contract is awarded to the lowest bidder • A supplier is allowed to modify the price offer until auction’s closing time • The price offers can only be modified downwards • A specified minimum number of offers is required in order to award the contract

13. Restricted Standard Goods and Services Auctions (with pre-qualification) • The Contracting Authority establishes pre-qualification criteria • The Contracting Authority decides upon each supplier meeting the minimum qualification criteria • Only qualified suppliers can submit a price offer • After pre-qualification stage, the auction becomes similar with the open auction

14. Catalog Based Public Aquisitions • The System’s Operator establishes the type of products/services that can be used in catalogs • Any registered supplier can define it’s own catalog • All Contracting Authorities can access all catalog items • Types: • Request for Quotation • Direct Acquisition

15. Catalog Based Public Aquisitions(Request for Quotation) • The Contracting Authority chooses at least 5 similar products (from 5 different suppliers) for which it needs an unswerving price quotation • The Contracting Authority decides upon a maximum acceptable price • At least 3 suppliers have to submit an offer • The contract is awarded to the lowest bidder

16. Catalog Based Public Aquisitions(Direct Aquisition) • The Contracting Authority chooses from the catalogs and makes a direct order • The supplier may accept or not the order

17. Complex Goods and Services Auctions • The technical requirements are defined in a tender dossier uploaded by the Contracting Authority and a set of technical criteria that have to be met by the suppliers • The technical evaluation for each criteria can be either boolean (accept/reject ) or numerical (a number of points is awarded to the bidder) • The bidder with the best technical-financial offer (considering the associated weights) is awarded the contract. Alternative offers are accepted. • Moreover, a complex auction can include a pre-qualification stage; either a step criteria is used (only supplier with a minimum number of points) or the first N suppliers (ranked by the number of points) are accepted. Several Contracting Authorities can initiate together an auction.

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20. Thank you for your attention!