"We report to a set of Simplified Contracting procedures, based on material criteria, and Emergency Contracting, authorized by the President of the Republic", stated Vera Daves, in the letter sent to the Secretary of the President of the Republic for Legal Affairs.
"Many of the simplified and emergency Public Contracting Procedures approved by order of His Excellency, holder of the executive power, are in non-compliance with the Public Contracting Law (LPC), as they do not meet the requirements for their adoption", warned the Minister of Finance.
At issue is, added Vera Daves de Sousa, the lack of prior consultation with Finance regarding the attribution of contracts that are published in the Diário da República, and which render null any position of Finance after they have been published.
"The Ministry of Finance has not been previously consulted about them, only taking knowledge of the authorization of the holder of the executive power, thus leaving no room for intervention through the National Public Contracting Service (SNCP)", said the minister, adding that, "on the other hand, in many cases, on the referred orders of the holder of the executive power, the order of the Minister of State and Head of the Civil House falls, guiding their publication".
In the letter, Vera Daves, who at various times in recent months has publicly warned of the need to ensure that public procurement follows the rules and that it has prior budget allocation, recalled that "in previous years (2018)", before the President of the Republic to sign any order relating to simplified or emergency public contracting, that is, by direct agreement, the Presidency referred to the Finances, "for a prior opinion on the conformity, legality and regularity of the said order, including the existence of a budget for execution projects".
In the document, dated December 7th and which has been circulating on social media, the finance minister requested the intervention of the secretary of Legal Affairs "for the purposes of alignment, before submitting the orders referring to the procedures for the signature of the holder of the executive power. , in order to avoid the practice of illegal and/or irregular acts when taking the decision to contract and subsequent acts".
The new law on public contracts entered into force in January, presenting several new features, such as the creation of an emergency contracting procedure and a dynamic electronic procedure, allowing for a faster procurement of goods and services during a pandemic period.
The emergency contracting procedure is a simplified procedure intended for emergency situations, with a cause not attributable to the respective contracting public entity, which may only appeal to it when the deadlines or formalities provided for in the other public contracting procedures cannot be proven to be complied with, while the dynamic electronic procedure simplifies contracting carried out through an electronic auction.
Among the main innovations listed are, in addition to new public contracting procedures, the simplification and creation of a new sanctioning regime, ranging from 550 to 3,300 dollars for individuals and from 2,750 to 16,500 dollars for companies.
