On Thursday, 3 December, the Saeima in the final reading adopted urgent amendments to the Public Procurement Law. According to the new provisions of the Law, scientific expert evaluations will be exempt from the procurement procedure as long as the total amount of the contract is below the threshold of EUR 134 000 and the contract is concluded with experts from an internationally recognised database of scientific experts.
The authors of the amendments pointed out that the new provisions will accelerate absorption of the European Union structural funds in the amount of EUR 150 million. Furthermore, it is important to ensure independent scientific expert evaluations of research projects in order to verify their findings. Until now the Law did not provide for such exemptions.
According to the amendments, exemption is granted if the contract price does not exceed EUR 134 000 and two additional conditions are met: the contract is concluded for research and development services with an expert registered on a database of scientific experts compiled by the European Commission or another entity ; and, involvement of such experts is stipulated in the laws and regulations on the absorption of funds and implementation of programmes financed from the national or the European Union budget.
The amendments to the Public Procurement Law will come into effect on the day after their proclamation.
Saeima Press Service