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The President hopes that the new Director will further strengthen the administrative capacity of the VPN, continue and improve its investigation and prevention activities of violations, ensuring the growing needs for rapid acquisitions, data opening and transfer of services to the electronic space.
“The competence and experience of the new director in the field of centralized public procurement is expected to also contribute to the successful implementation of centralized procurement and career changes initiated by the president,” the press release said.
The Head of State emphasizes that the professionalism of the VPN Director is an important condition for public trust in the VPN and in the entire public procurement system.
Office of the President of the Republic of Lithuania / Photo by R. Dačkus / Gitanas Nausėda met with Darius Vedrickas, candidate for Head of the Public Procurement Service
In order to increase the efficiency of the public procurement system, the President initiated amendments to the Public Procurement Law, which would establish the strategic importance of public procurement policy, promote the centralization of procurement, and increase professionalism. According to the head of state, the VPN will play an important role in the implementation of these changes.
On Wednesday, President Gitanas Nausėda met with the candidate for the position, currently director of the Central Procurement Authority Darius Vedrick.
The candidate to lead the service, D.Vedrick, told reporters that he hoped to find common ground with the new governors and mentioned the development of competencies as the main task of the service. The lack of competition, according to the candidate to lead the VPN, is the cause of many violations of the Public Procurement Law.
“In my opinion, the main thing should be the development of competencies and we have to ask ourselves what is important to us: the consequence or the cause. We have many violations of the public procurement law, some of which are minor and they owe to incompetence. As the President mentioned, it is necessary to develop competencies and present the necessary draft bill, “said D. Vedrickas.
We have many violations of the public procurement law, some of which are minor and due to incompetence.
He confirmed that he had not met with the parts that make up the government, but said that he hoped to find a common language, because “the objective must be common to all: to open the public procurement system and increase trust in it.”
Ingrida Šimonytė, a candidate for the post of head of the new government, said that D. Vedrick was almost unknown.
“I have met several times in the Audit Committee to discuss the issues of centralized procurement. It is difficult to say a definitive opinion or describe it very strictly (…) I do not want to underestimate or underestimate its capabilities,” said I. Šimonytė to journalists on Wednesday after the meeting with the president.
Photo by Lukas Balandus / 15min / Ingrida Šimonytė
However, he reiterated that the situation of appointing people to long-standing vacancies at the end of the government’s term is not good.
“Several of these appointments are made at the last minute for positions where a suitable person has not been found or appointed for several years, it never seems very good, even if sometimes the most competent people are offered,” stated I. Šimonytė.
Photo by Lukas Balandus / 15min / Ingrida Šimonytė
D.Vedrickas, 36, has headed the Central Procurement Authority since May 2017, having previously worked in the Ministry of Economy in the field of public procurement policy formation, in the Ministry of the Interior.
He graduated from Mykolas Romeris University with a Bachelor of Public Administration and a Master of Public Administration from the Institute of International Relations and Political Science of Vilnius University.
VPN has not had a permanent boss for a year, since October last year, when Diana Vilytė resigned from this position. The Office is temporarily headed by Deputy Director Jovita Petkuvienė.
By law, the head of the VPN is appointed by the country’s president on the recommendation of the prime minister for a period of four years. The government has indicated that Vedrick is a proposed candidate for the presidency.
Last week, the leaders of the National Union and the Lithuanian Christian Democrats, which formed the new center-right coalition, called on incumbent rulers to refrain from making new appointments and recruits.
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