On Wednesday, 21 January 2015 the Institute of Public Finance hosted a lecture by Daniela Pirvu from the Faculty of Economics, University of Pitesti entitled The access of social enterprises to the public procurement market in Romania: current challenges.

The public procurement system in Romania is becoming more important in the context of harmonization with the EU rules and the increase of public spending through the absorption of European cohesion and structural funds. Daniela Pirvu has researched the period 2008-2013 as well as analysed and defined the features of public procurement in Romania. She has determined that the social enterprises actively take part in socially significant areas of social protection, social services, health, local services, education, culture, sport and recreation. Enhancement of public procurement system may be used to incite public enterprises, to achieve better results in competitive and efficient environment. Activities of social enterprises may be significantly improved if allowed access to special contracts and procedures.

In the new Press release named Everything is like last year - we do not have the public debt management strategy? Anto Bajo and Marko Primorac point at the fact that the borrowing was done without the clear borrowing plan and public debt management strategy.

The fiscal position of local and regional self-government units (especially of the City of Zagreb) is significantly influenced by the operations of their utility firms. The debt of the utility firms is often higher than the debt accumulated by the local government units. For this reason the liabilities of utility firms have become a threat to the financial stability of local and regional self-government units, especially of the City of Zagreb. Anto Bajo and Marko Primorac in the new Newsletter entitled The debt and fiscal risks of local and regional self-government units in Croatia analyse liabilities of local units and their exposure to the financial operation of utility firms.