Abstract

Transparency of public procurement in Romania cannot be understood outside the overall legal context. At first, transparency was among the most desired outcomes of the democratization process started in the early 1990s. In time, though, the new administration has adapted to the legal framework and the transparency was trumped again and the Romanian authorities are nowadays characterized as ‘opaque’. The high stakes of public procurement contracts are enhancing the debate over how much transparency and how much secrecy public procurement needs in order to be effective. The chapter tells a story of mocked transparency and formal implementation of legal rules, abusive use of ‘commercial secret’ exemptions, as the transparency of public procurement is in the centre of constant litigation.