Central purchasing bodies in Romania

The CPBs in Romania does not have a longstanding tradition in Romania. Despite aggregated procurement being transposed into the Romanian legislation in 2006, there were only 3 active CPBs (the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations and the National Prisons Administration) up until 2018 and they are based on sectoral purchasing. In 2018, there have been some developments in relation to CPB, where the National Office for Centralised Procurement (NOCP) was established. With the establishment of NOCP, the government issued an ordinance to regulate its activity. These initiatives are part of the 2015 strategy for reforming public procurement. This Chapter discusses amongst others, the legal structure and function of CPBs and other forms of joint procurement, the techniques adopted by the CPBs, the issue relating to competition law and participation of SMEs in CPBs procurement, the liability of CPBs and its users and lastly the situation of public procurement relating to CPBs in the COVID-19 procurement. © The Editors and Contributors Severally 2021.