Challenge

Imagine transformation of an entire governmental industry – that of the public procurement happening in one year: that means creation of a digital core from the very beginning and implementation of a business model, which is absolutely different from the previous one, involving private companies as developers or co-providers of public services.

A bold project that is ongoing in Moldova.

Strategy and solution

Innovative business model

Objectives proposed in this project are beyond systemic tendencies of any government to make public procurement more efficient and transparent. The ultimate goal was to deeply transform the way services are delivered, demonopolizing it and outsourcing some state’s prerogatives to private companies, which are willing to invest in this field.

By joint efforts, central administration, having the support of the foreign development partners, BERD and EU, managed in 2017 to promote and to adopt the reform of public procurement (ground-breaking reform) and to implement a new, innovative business model of providing services. The central idea was to create an ecosystem around the industry of public procurement, where the Government (Ministry of Finance) acts like a coordinator and offers services jointly with private companies.  The goal of this model is to facilitate organic partnerships between public and private sectors in order to create together new values and innovations.

Direct implementation of the project was divided among developers of the digital core and of front-office platforms. Digital Core is responsible for the management of procurement business processes and its integration with government’s digital ecosystem. The processes that have an impact over user experience when using a public service, have been delegated to private companies, which expressed their desire to invest in this project. They had the task to ensure procurement launch processes, tendering, awarding and contract signing.

Technological implementation has been a challenge per se due to complexity of the project in general, but due to the need to deliver results in real time. Imagine yourself the MTender platform, consisting from tens of informational systems, having at the basis a diverse technologies’ stack, being developed in parallel by 5 teams and delivering business outcomes during the procurement processes. Such an agile implementation was possible thanks to the approaches, adopted in the field of architecture (microservices) and API (Open API), of the used advanced technologies, and not the last, thanks to a complex ecosystem of governmental platform services, which are available in Moldova. Thanks to these, Mtender could effortlessly benefit from electronic payment services, digital identity, authentication. Data interoperability was carried out in record time via the Enterprise Service Bus platform (MConnect). In order to ensure maximal availability of the provided service, MTender was installed and it runs in the cloud computing platform of the government (MCloud)

Esempla company participates in this project, having two roles: as developers of front-office platform (eLicitatie) and integrator which, together with the team from the government, manage to implement interoperability of data with third state systems.

Transformation

Efficiency, Competitiveness, Transparency

The new electronic system, called MTender, has been introduced in all key central government ministries and 100 subordinated entities. It follows the creation, input and adoption of the required technical and legal framework with active support by the EBRD and the European Union (EU).

The most relevant result which was obtained is the modular and flexible platform, which contributes, thanks to the collected data and open APIs, to creation and monetization of other types of services, which are meant to accomplish the experience (achieve a frictionless experience) of using public procurement services.

Also, very important are the results related to improving the efficiency of business processes, increasing competitiveness in participation at public tenders, general transparency and achieved savings. These shall become relevant in time.

Challenge

The integrity system of a country is essential to the consolidation of an authentic democracy.

Alignment with international standards of integrity began in Moldova in 2006 and it was the result of external pressure from several development partners, including the Council of Europe, GRECO and the European Union.

One of the objectives of integrity reform was to set up a measurement tool that anticorruption authorities (especially NIA) would use to analyze the impact and causes of corruption, and to facilitate national efforts to fight it.

Strategy and solution

In order to effectively exercise an administrative control of wealth and assets gained when holding a public office, conflicts of interest and incompatibilities, NIA concentrated its efforts on two major fields:

• Effective control of suspicions and corruption cases through efficient management of investigation processes;

• Preventing them through an effective exchange of information with other data holders and ongoing monitoring by civil society;

Technical implementation took place with the support of WorldBank and the eGovernment Agency. The objectives of the project have been shaped around the following issues:

• Digitizing the submission processes. Moving this process into the online environment and total outsourcing to the reporting subjects made it possible for NIA to quickly analyze data and react in a timely manner.

• Back office transformation. The entire investigation process was automated from initiation to issuing a decision, and investigative inspectors could concentrate their efforts on carrying out their basic tasks.

• Interoperability of data ensured reliable data and acting accordingly; and created an additional open data control mechanism for the civil society.

The system was anchored in the government’s digital ecosystem, which facilitated its successful implementation. Thus, to ensure high availability, the system components were installed and they run on the cloud computing platform of the government (MCloud). The exchange of information with other data stakeholders is centralized through an ESB middleware platform (MConnect). Full digitization of declarations’ submission flows, but also authenticity of data has been ensured through the use of digital signature platform services (Msign).

Transformation

An essential objective which was carried out within this project was the delivery of tools designed to contribute to the transparency of public officials’ assets through effective control mechanisms and the involvement of civil society through free access to data of public interest. It also created the necessary prerequisites for preventing this phenomenon, thanks to the efficiency of NIA’s activity and investing efforts in education and advocacy