Parliamentary Group

Assembly of the Republic-Palace of S. Bento-1249-068 Lisbon-Phone: 21391 9233-Fax: 21391 7456 Email: gpcds@pp. parlamento.pt-http://cdsnoparlamento.pp. parliamento.pt

DRAFT RESOLUTION NO. 39 /XI

TRANSPARENCY IN PUBLIC PROCUREMENT

Exhibition of reasons

I

Article 4º (1) of the Decree-Law No 18/2008 of January 29 (Code of Contracts

Audiences-CCP) foresaw the constitution of a single portal dedicated to contracts

public: this is the comummind called the Public Procurement Portal, accessible

at www.base.gov.pt. Inserted into a strategy that aims at the increment of transparency

in a sector where the same constitutes a value of the greatest importance, the Portal of the

Public Procurement is without a doubt an added value in any combat plan to the

corruption. The CDS-PP acknowledges and releases the importance of this tool accessible to

public in general. But this does not prevent us from considering it to be insufficient and

deficiently set up, taking into account the purposes it aims to achieve and the public to which

is intended.

II

The Portal of Public Procurement embraces information on all contracts

public subjects to the CCP, in a general way. In it are delimited, however, two

specific and independent areas, one regarding the contracts related to works

public and the other concerning leasing or purchase contracts for movable and commercial goods

acquisition of services, which constitute autonomous information systems or

interconnected, but always properly articulated.

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The responsibilities with regard to the management of the portal and information systems

that are acheed through the same come set in the Portaria No 701-F/2008, from 29 of

July, which also defines the conditions for the articulation with the platforms

electronic used by the contracting authorities; they are also defined

general specifications as to access to information. It is to be noted, in this respect, that the

specific management of the information that is placed on the Portal is the responsibility of the InCI

(Institute of Construction and Real estate) and ANCP (National Purchasing Agency

Public), and that the information made available should mention:

-The conclusion of any contracts in the sequence of direct adjustment;

-The advertisements published in Journal of the Republic concerning procedures of

formation of contracts;

-The final decisions for the application of an ancillary by-law to participate in

any procedure for the formation of public procurement, in the terms provided for in the

article 460º of the CCP;

-The objective modifications of contracts representing a cumulated value

higher than 15% of the contractual price.

The information made available, however-and bad-willed the minutia laid out in the wording of the

legal provisions that specify the content of the same-, is very little detailed.

This assumes both greater relief and it is certain that Law No. 54/2008, 4 of

September (Cria the Council for the Prevention of Corruption) considers to be activities of

aggravated risk to those covering acquisitions of goods and services and works of works

public and concessions without contest. The international recommendations regarding the

pursuing a policy of "good practices" in governance, incidentally, all point in the

sense of the enhancement of transparency and objectivity in the mechanisms of decision making,

strategy from which you cannot walk rounded up full public disclosure, not only from the iter

conducive to the award decision, but also from the legal instruments

binding on which the decision to hire is verted.

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It adds that the Government, through the Decree-Law No. 34/2009, of February 6,

proceeded to amendments to the Code of Public Procurement approved by the Decree-Law

n ° 18/2008 of January 29 establishing a new limit for exemption from

public tenders by the State, Autonomous Regions and municipalities. This

legislative amendment will lead to a predictable increment of public procurement in the

direct adjustment sequence, concluded under the exceptional measures

established by the said diploma.

This new law can, alone, unhurt a serious blow to the rules of transparency and of

objectivity governing public procurement, and, as well, to potentiate the risk of

practices of corruption and related offences, as it allows for the adoption of a

exceptional regime of contracting and execution of public works, allied to a remarkable

increased discretionary powers by public decision-makers.

III

The publicitation of the contracts in the Public Procurement Portal is, also already the

we refer, ineffective: it is a clear case of a commendable intention whose concretization

leaves to be desired.

In fact, the Public Procurement Portal does not allow for effective consultation, once

that any interested party wishing to consult the Portal through a keyword is

confronted with a huge list of data that can only be consulted

sequentially. As an obvious result, this thread of the research hinders the

research and consultation process. It was for this reason that ANSOL (National Association

for Free Software-http://ansol.org) created a portal named " Transparency

in the AP " (http://transparencia-pt.org), in which it makes available a service, built with

software free and that allows, finally, to effectively research the Contract Portal

Public.

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IV

The Council for the Prevention of Corruption (CPC), through Deliberation No 1377/2009,

published in the Journal of the Republic, II Series, No 93, of 05/14/2009, seeks to warn all

public entities eventually included in the scope of the Decree-Law

34/2009, of February 6, for the need for increased prevention of the risk of

corruption and related offences stemming from the exceptional measures established

by the rented diploma, specifically from the broadening of the possibility of adoption

of the direct adjustment procedure.

The CDS-PP accompanies the CPC in the conviction that it is necessary to analyze with

particular attention-in articulation with the Court of Auditors and other bodies of the

Public Administration-the information introduced in the Internet Portal dedicated to the

public procurement, with the subsequent forwarding of the considered situations

anomales for the competent entities-control bodies, police bodies

criminal (morally the Judicial Police) or the Public Prosecutor's Office.

The purpose of the present draft resolution is to be of the rest, in one of the

constant recommendations from the cited Deliberation, which it will in the sense of promoting the

reinforcement of transparency mechanisms by introduction in the Portal of more

informative elements, and of more efficient and broadening mechanisms of search and

relationship of data that allow for the intersection of relevant information.

In these terms, and under the provisions of Article 156º of the Constitution of the Republic

Portuguese, the Assembly of the Republic recommends the Government to undertake the reinforcement

of the mechanisms of transparency in the formation and conclusion of public procurement,

through the adoption of the following measures:

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1-Introduction, in the Portal of Public Procurement, of more efficient mechanisms and

extended search and data relationship, allowing for the intersection of

relevant information, at both national and regional or municipal level;

2-Amendment of the Portaria No 701-F/2008 of July 29 in the sense of making

compulsory the provision of the following informative elements, in respect of

all administrative procedures for the formation of public procurement governed

by the Code of Public Procurement:

a) More accurate and complete explanation of the goods, services or works subject to the

contract;

b) Publication of the contract, the respective annexes and possible additions;

c) Identification of the remaining competitors-with indication of name, seat and

number of tax identification-and, in particular, of competitors

claimants or impugants;

3-Reconfiguration of the Portal of Public Procurement, with the aim of

introduce the possibility of automatic search of the contracting authorities, of the adjudicators

and of the remaining competitors, and their relationship with the good, service, or labor to depart

of words or terms-specifically, denominations, tax number, partners,

seat or establishment, well, service or work;

4-Reconfiguration of the Portal of Public Procurement, in the sense of the giving of the

necessary or sufficient connections for the obtaining of statistical data by

contracting, by adjudicator or by contract.

Palace of S. Bento, December 15, 2009.

The Deputies,

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