While transparency should be the law of life in any democracy, objective and responsible monitoring of public expenditure is key to ensuring transparency.
In Romania, under the INTEGRITY PACTS – Civil Control Mechanisms for Safeguarding EU funds, Phase 2 project, Romanian Academic Society will closely monitor three public procurement contracts in the field of information, communication and publicity. The Managing Authority of the Operational Programme for Administrative Capacity (MA OPAC) has granted us full access to all procedures related to the following projects.
- Organisation of communication and information events for MA OPAC (estimated value of 1,088,720 EUR) will take place between 2017-2018. It aims at furthering information activities targeting beneficiaries and potential beneficiaries through the organisation of information campaigns (i.e. caravans, workshops, debates, meetings with beneficiaries, plus promotional and informational materials to be disseminated during all events).
- Studies and analyses to measure the level of satisfaction of MA OPAC beneficiaries, as well as the level of information of potential beneficiaries – with an estimated value of 266,625 EUR, also to be implemented between 2017-2018. This project will enable MA OPAC to gather data regarding the impact of their communication and information events and of their publicity efforts (such as poca.ro ). The main objective here is to get feedback on the efficiency of OPAC communication system with a view to improving it in the future.
- Training services for MA OPAC beneficiaries (worth 244,406 EUR). This framework contract will start in 2017 and is due to end in 2019. The success of future projects to be financed through the OPAC can only build upon the accrued expertise of project management teams. MA OPAC will thus organise several training sessions for its beneficiaries and potential beneficiaries, on topics such as: public procurement, financial management, project management, acces to structural funds, etc.