Decrete 9.602

PERMANENT NATIONAL FUND FOR PREINVERSION STUDIES

Let's rule operations.

Bs. As. 29/12/67.

VISTO:

Having regard to Act No. 17.584 establishing the National Permanent Fund for Investment Studies, and

CONSIDERING:

That it is necessary to regulate the operations of the Fund;

It is also necessary to specify the methodological criteria to be used for the award of the Fund ' s resources and for the recruitment of the technical studies whose realization is the main purpose of the Fund;

That the functions and operations of the Fund ' s Financial Agents, with regard to the administration of the Fund, and their functional links with the National Development Council Secretariat should also be regulated;

That the very nature of technical studies and analyses that are expected to be funded through the Fund requires defining specific administrative and technical standards and criteria applicable to them and that in many respects differ from those traditionally employed by public sector agencies;

That the functions of the Secretariat of the National Development Council as the Administrator of the Fund and the internal operation of the Standing Committee provided for in article 4 of the Act which is regulated by the present Law require detailed provision;

For all of it,

The President of the Argentine Nation,

Decrete:



Article 1 The Permanent National Fund for Investment Studies, created by Law No. 17.584, is the financial instrument of a national programme aimed at integrating economic and social planning tasks in an organic manner at the global and regional level with the implementation of programmes and projects, the latter which requires the preparation of technical and economic studies and analysis to enable the identification, preparation, definition and evaluation of such projects and/or specific programmes.

Art. 2o.- The financial contributions made by the Fund shall be incorporated into the special account of the Secretariat of the National Development Council, provided for in the National Executive Decree No. 7.777/62, which shall also include the corresponding appropriations or budget. Such contributions will be channelled as follows:

(a) Those who make the National Government with their own funds, whether by unilateral decision or in compliance with international conventions and as a counterpart to the contributions received under such agreements, shall be made available to the Secretariat of the National Development Council by the Ministry of State of Finance.

(b) Those from external credit operations provided for in article 2 (b) of Law No. 17.584 shall be made available to the Secretariat of the National Development Council by the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic.

(c) The impact on the Fund of the resources provided for in article 2 (b) of Law No. 17.584 shall arise from the same credit instruments or be declared by the National Executive.

(d) The contributions provided for in article 2 (c) and (d) of Law No. 17.584 shall be incorporated into the Fund through its financial agents, in the event of originating from autarchical agencies of the public sector, State enterprises and private agencies or entities; and through the budget of the Secretariat of the National Development Council, in other cases.

(e) Contributions provided for in article 2 (e) of Act No. 17.584 shall be accepted by the National Executive Power in the event of being legacies or donations and affected by express declaration by the Executive Branch itself, in the remaining cases.

Ar. 3o.- The resources of the Fund, whatever its origin, shall be allocated, by the Secretariat of the National Development Council directly or through the financial agents of the Fund, to the total or partial financing of:

(a) Technical and/or financial and/or economic feasibility studies of specific programmes or projects, as provided for in article 3 (a) of Act No. 17.584.

(b) Complementary studies or analyses, including engineering studies if necessary, projects or programs whose feasibility has been demonstrated and/or that require raising their level of presentation or supplementing additional requirements for their financing management. Engineering studies and projects that allow the award of works or constitute the technical basis for tenders for programmes or projects already studied. Analysis and studies necessary to complete or supplement those already carried out by the agencies and/or distributions of the national, provincial and/or municipal public sector, centralized or not and the private sector, as provided for in article 3 (b) of Law No. 17.584;

(c) Prefactibility studies, sectoral or subsectoral studies, egional or multinational in the part of the Argentine Republic, specifically those aimed at identifying specific projects or quantifying investments in a sector or subsector in accordance with article 3 (c) of Law No. 17.584;

(d) General research, including human and natural resource studies, aerophotogrammerous surveys, marketing and market studies; surveys and/or statistical surveys; and any other aimed at promoting specific projects or programmes; in accordance with article 3 (d) and (e) of Law No. 17.584.



Art. 4o.- The Fund will be administered by the Secretariat of the National Development Council through a Standing Committee comprising the following officers:

(a) Mr. Secretary of the National Development Council;

(b) The Assistant Secretary of the National Development Council;

(c) Mr. Director of the Planning Area of the Secretariat of the National Development Council.

The Committee may be incorporated, where the matters concerned relate to the respective areas of competence, and the following officers may be made available to the Chairman of the Committee:

(a) A representative of the Industrial Bank of Argentina;

(b) A representative of the Bank of Argentina;

(c) A representative of the Federal Investment Council.

Art. 5o.- Mr. Secretary of the National Development Council shall serve as chairman of the Standing Committee, with decision-making power in all the resolutions adopted by the Standing Committee, which shall be taken by a simple majority and may delegate their functions and this attribution to the Assistant Secretary of the National Development Council in the event of absence or impediment. The Secretariat of the Standing Committee will be headed by the Department of Technical and Financial Cooperation of the Secretariat of the National Development Council.

Art. 6o.- The following shall be the functions and powers of the Standing Committee.

(a) To exercise, on behalf of the Secretariat of the National Development Council, the administration of the National Permanent Fund for Investment Studies;

(b) To establish annually the general directives to which the operations of the Fund will be adjusted, and to establish tentative multi-year plans for such operations;

(c) To approve, annually, on the proposal of the Secretariat, the budget for the operations of the Fund;

(d) To resolve, on the proposal of the Secretariat, changes to that annual budget;

(e) To resolve, in general, any matter relating to the administration of the Fund and its relations with the National Executive and provincial governments on the basis of the technical reports to be prepared by the Secretariat.

Art. 7o.- The powers and powers of the Chairman of the Standing Committee shall be:

(a) To chair meetings of the Standing Committee;

(b) To convene the meetings of the Committee and to establish, on the proposal of the Secretariat, their agenda;

(c) To propose annually to the National Executive the amount of its contributions to the National Government in accordance with article 2 (a) of this regulation;

(d) To approve and sign contracts to give rise to fund operations;

(e) To subscribe to documents and reports related to the use of the credits provided for in article 2 (b) of Law No. 17.584 and specifically those related to the credits agreed by the Inter-American Development Bank. 4/CD-AR and 111/SF-AR approved by National Executive Decree No. 1,018 of the 16th February 1967.

Art. 8o.- The functions and powers of the Secretariat of the Standing Committee shall be as follows:

(a) To receive, analyse, evaluate, process and report applications submitted by the various public and/or private sector agencies for the conduct of the studies provided for in article 3 of this regulation;

(b) Formulate and propose to the Standing Committee the annual budget of the Fund ' s operations and their modifications;

(c) To prepare and keep up-to-date a register of public and/or private, national or foreign firms and entities operating in the field of technical consulting in any of its branches or specialties;

(d) To form part of the selection committees that are constituted for the purposes of awarding the studies and/or technical analysis that will be financed in whole or part with the Fund ' s resources and to monitor the tasks thereof;

(e) To propose to the Standing Committee the basic criteria, methodology and selection procedures for the recruitment of studies and/or technical analysis to be financed in whole or part with the resources of the Fund;

(f) To prepare and update an inventory of programmes and/or projects that are likely to be addressed with the resources of the Fund;

(g) Outreach and advocacy to achieve the objectives of the Fund;

(h) Preparation of reports on national-level programmes on pre-investment studies and/or feasibility and coordination of the activities of the various national agencies for this purpose;

(i) Preparation of reports on the use of resources to be submitted to the International Financial Agencies that have contributed with resources to the Fund;

(j) Any other task entrusted to it by the Chairman or Standing Committee relating to the Fund ' s Administration.

Art. 9o.- The Secretariat of the National Development Council shall have the responsibility to establish, through its Directorate of Administration, an accounting, registration and counter-lor system intended solely for the operations of the Fund, which shall, inter alia, be adapted to the requirements of the conventions referred to in article 2 (b) of Act No. 17.584.

Art. 10.- The Bank of the Argentine Nation and the Inter-American Bank of the Argentine Republic, as Financial Agents of the Fund, as well as other Financial Agents that may be designated in accordance with Article 5 of Law No. 17.584, shall have the following functions and powers:

(a) To form part of the Permanent Council of the Fund in accordance with article 4 of the present regulations;

(b) To act as financial intermediaries between the Fund and agencies, entities and/or private sector enterprises and State enterprises, auto-archic and/or decentralized agencies of the national, provincial and/or municipal public sector, in terms of the use by them of the Fund ' s resources;

(c) To contribute, with its own financial resources and in accordance with its operational modalities to the implementation of the national programme provided for in article 1 of the present regulation.

Art. 11.- For the purposes of inc. (b) of the previous article and on the basis of its respective functional competencies, the Industrial Bank of the Argentine Republic will cover operations related to private sector industrial programmes and/or projects and the Bank of the Argentine Nation, those relating to the remaining sectors and entities. The operational modalities governing relations between the Secretariat of the National Development Council and the Fund ' s financial agents will be subject to special agreements.



Art. 12o.- The conduct of technical studies and analyses provided for in article 3 of the present regulation shall be carried out using any of the following procedures:

(a) Through direct recruitment of expert services or consultants ' teams either acting as individuals or as firms or entities, regardless of the legal form of the latter, whether or not they are resident in the country;

(b) Through public or private, national and/or international examinations, titles and methodologies, involving the individuals, signatures or entities referred to in the preceding paragraph.

Art. 13o.- The use of the direct procurement procedure provided for in the previous article should in all cases be made available and founded by the Standing Committee, or by the Chairman of the Committee, through generic authorization from the Committee.

Art. 14.- Recruitments, whether directly or through competition and the selection of individuals, signatures or entities that will be responsible for the conduct of the studies, shall be subject to the following basic criteria and methodology to be established by the Secretariat of the National Development Council by resolution of the Standing Committee.

(a) The quality of the study and the reasonable cost of the study shall be taken into account primarily;

(b) In order to judge the quality of the study, the previous background and experience of the individuals, firms or entities, the technical-professional level and the composition of the team that will perform the work and the methodology that it intends to use for its realization will be weighted.

Art. 15.- Contracts referred to in the preceding articles shall be made by the Secretariat of the National Development Council, which may, when the studies and/or analyses have been requested by the entities or agencies specified in article 10 (b) of this regulation, authorize such entities or agencies to perform such contracts in consultation with the Secretariat of the National Development Council.

Art. 16.- The consultation referred to in the previous article shall, among other possible points, see:

(a) Text and scope of the proposed contract;

(b) Background, experience and tenet-professional qualifications of experts or firms or consulting entities intending to hire.

The Standing Committee of the Fund may veto the selection of experts, firms or consulting entities if it considers that they are not sufficiently qualified to deal with the proposed tasks.

Art. 17.- The Standing Committee shall take into account, for the purposes of the formulation of the annual budget referred to in article 6 (c) and (d) of the present regulation, and in general for decisions on studies and/or analysis to be undertaken using the Fund ' s resources, the following basic criteria for the selection of studies:

(a) The study of programmes and/or projects related to the economic and social development of the country that are consistent and consistent with the National Development and Security Plans and their goals;

(b) In the case of studies relating to programmes and/or projects aimed at the implementation of new productive activities, the creation or expansion of occupational sources, the improvement and improvement of the productivity of existing activities or the modernization and integration of enterprises and productive activities;

(c) The study of programmes and/or projects that directly or indirectly support the process of expansion of national exports and/or import substitution:

(d) The study of programmes and/or projects aimed at enabling greater and more appropriate use of the country ' s natural resources and its human and technological potential and contributing to the process of national integration and the incorporation of areas of lesser development relating to the country ' s economic life;

(e) To consider studies linked to national or international efforts in the area of regional integration or development of border areas;

(f) In the case of studies relating to programmes and/or projects that have the potential for financing by national or international financial agencies or which are of interest to investors in the country or abroad;

(g) In the case of studies in which they can participate or collaborate local technicians and professionals either individually or through local technical consultancies associated with or not others of foreign origin;

(h) Whether it is studies that the National Executive Branch declares to be of national interest.

Art. 18.- Public or private entities or agencies that request the conduct of studies provided for in Article 3 of this regulation or entities or agencies that are beneficiaries of such studies or for those who undertake them shall contribute to their financing, with their own funds, in a proportion not less than 10 per cent of the total cost of such studies. The Administering Committee may, on an exceptional basis, resolve the non-implementation of such a contribution in specific cases.

Art. 19.- Public or private entities or agencies that request the conduct of studies provided for in article 3 of the present regulation or entities or agencies that are beneficiaries of such studies or for those who undertake such studies shall directly reintegrate into the Fund, or through the financial agents thereof, all the resources that the Fund has disbursed to carry out the studies within the time and conditions established at the time of the disbursements. Such a refund shall be effected by maintaining the value of the currency in which the disbursements are made and shall be obligatory even in cases where the technical studies and/or analyses that are carried out demonstrate the desirability of a particular project or program and whether it is or is not possible to obtain the financing of the works or projects referred to in such studies.

Art. 20.- In cases where, as a result of technical studies or analyses funded from the Fund, it is possible to obtain domestic and/or external financing for specific projects or programmes, the return referred to in the preceding article shall be effected, without prejudice to the time and conditions that have been established, in full, simultaneously with the receipt by the beneficiary entity or agency of the first disbursement of such domestic and/or external financing.

Art. 21.- The Standing Committee may resolve, on an exceptional and substantial basis, on the basis of the conditions or special nature of the studies to be addressed, the non-recoverability of the Fund ' s funding for them. Such a faculty shall exercise it while authorizing the conduct of the or studies concerned.



Art. 22.- The Pre-investment Studies Division of the Department of Technical and Financial Cooperation of the Secretariat of the National Development Council shall be responsible for the functions and powers provided for in article 8 of the present regulation and especially those derived from the use of the 4/CD-AR and 111/SF-AR credits granted to the Argentine Government by the Inter-American Development Bank, which were approved by Decree No. 1.018 of 16 February 1967.

Art. 23.- Affect the Permanent Fund for Investment Studies, created by Law No. 17.584, funds from loan contracts 4/CD-AR and 111/SF-AR signed by the Argentine Government with the Inter-American Development Bank.

Art. 24.- This Decree shall be endorsed by the Minister of Economy and Labour and signed by the Secretary of State of Finance.

Art. 25.- Communicate, publish, give to the National Directorate of the Official Register, completed, arched.

NGOsANIA - Adalbert Krieger Vasena - Luis S. D'imperio.