Blog

As part of the Increasing the Integrity of Public Procurement in Moldova project, in partnership with Partnership for Transparency, IDIS is launching a competition for grant funding to monitor public procurement. The goal of the project is to support public procurement reforms in Moldova, which will increase the transparency and fairness of public procurement by empowering citizens to hold relevant institutions accountable. This can be achieved by training CSOs and investigative journalist organizations to be watchdogs in monitoring public procurement and by supporting their work for a period of time with grant funding.

Grants between $5,000 and $25,000 will be awarded to Moldovan civil society organizations and investigative journalist organizations based on a competitive selection process to support them in responsible and effective monitoring of public procurement.

CSOs and investigative journalist organizations interested in conducting procurement monitoring can apply for a grant by submitting a proposal for monitoring.

Objectives of the grant program

• Monitoring procurement at the national, local, or municipal level by CSOs and investigative journalists utilizing a variety of tools.
• Strengthening the capacity of Moldovan CSOs and investigative journalist organizations to effectively and responsibly monitor procurement by notifying relevant authorities about identified risks and irregularities and seeking resolution of such issues.
• Facilitating access to open data on public procurement by developing various tools, including digital ones.
• Improving legislation, regulations, policies, and procedures by making recommendations to contracting and regulatory authorities based on findings from the public procurement monitoring process.

Who can apply?

Public associations (CSOs and investigative journalist organizations) registered in the Republic of Moldova from all localities and regions of the country.

Eligibility criteria

Public associations may apply individually or partnerships may be established among several non-governmental organizations.

What should the project proposal include?

The project proposal should focus on public procurement monitoring and specify the monitoring actions to be undertaken. Monitoring of ongoing procurement procedures is mandatory.

Important: Completed procurement procedures cannot be included in the project proposal as an objective of monitoring.

Ineligible activities

The following (or similar) activities are ineligible:

• Activities seeking, either exclusively or specifically, individual sponsorships for participation in workshops, seminars, conferences, and/or congresses
• Activities specifically seeking individual scholarships for studies or training courses
• Activities involving the elaboration of theses (Bachelor’s, Master’s, or PhD)
• Activities aimed at financing a single conference – conferences can only be funded if they are part of a series of activities to be implemented during a given monitoring project and would have to be pre-approved by IDIS and PTF
• Monitoring projects seeking economic profit or non-profit projects that serve the interests of very limited target groups
• Activities that support political parties
• Policy and legal analysis not related to a specific procurement monitoring proposal

Value and duration of projects

The total amount available for grants is $200,000. Civil society associations registered in the Republic of Moldova can apply for grants of at least $5,000 and up to $25,000. The implementation period of the project must not exceed 12 months.

Project proposals will be evaluated by an evaluation committee based on an evaluation grid. After evaluation of all proposals, grants will be awarded within the available budget.

The evaluation schedule of the project proposals and all the conditions of application can be found in the funding guide.

Application procedure

The application file must include the following documents:

• Copy of the organization’s registration certificate
• Application form – the form can be completed in Romanian or English and only applications that comply with the template will be accepted
• Profile/description of the organization, including its experience with monitoring of public procurement
• CVs of the implementation team and experts
• Project budget
• In case of a partnership among organizations, a partnership agreement signed by all parties must be attached

Only fully completed applications will be processed and accepted in the grant competition.

Deadline

The deadline for submitting the file is March 17, 2022, at 23:00, indicating “Application for grants for monitoring public procurement”. The file must be sent to mihai.turcanu@viitorul.org and ungureanu.carolina@gmail.com.

The list of beneficiary organizations will be published on the IDIS Viitorul website in mid-April 2022.

Questions for clarification can be addressed to mihai.turcanu@viitorul.org until March 10, 2022. For interested organizations, IDIS Viitorul will organize two information sessions on the application procedure on March 2 and 4, 2022 at 10:00. For registration, go to this link. The answers to all the questions asked will be published on March 11, 2022 on www.viitorul.org.