The President of the Assembly of the Republic highlighted this Friday that the Independent Commission for Special Public Procurement was approved by a broad parliamentary consensus and its powers included the participation of the three sovereign bodies.
These notes were transmitted by Augusto Santos Silva in the opening session of the presentation of the first semi-annual report presented by the Independent Commission for Monitoring and Supervision of Special Measures for Public Procurement (CIMEC).
CIMEC was created in 2021 and its mission is to monitor and supervise the procedures adopted under the terms of special public procurement measures on projects financed or co-financed by European funds, such as the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), housing and decentralization, information technologies, health, fuel management in the field of the Integrated Rural Fire Management System and agri-food goods.
In his brief speech, in which he did not comment on the content of the report, the former Minister of State and Foreign Affairs pointed out the need felt by the Government and the public administration to adoption of special public procurement measures “for specific purposes and defined by law”with a view to “adapting the general regulations to the sectoral and temporary needs that the country is experiencing.”
These special public contracting measures are necessary so that the country has the capacity and the necessary means to make very important investments that have to be made in a very tight time. I am talking about the PRR, but also about security, agri-food, health measures, or the use of European funds”, he justified.
From the political point of view, according to the President of the Assembly of the Republic, the the provision for the existence of the commission was not part of a law proposed by the Government and result of the work carried out in parliament.
In addition, its composition and attributions were later densified as a result of a request for review by the President of the Republic”, he observed, referring to the political veto of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa in relation to the first version of the decree issued by parliament. .
In other words, according to Augusto Santos Silva, “the commission, as it exists, testifies not only to the initial intention of the proponent, in this case the Government, but also to the witnesses a decision by the legislator and the culmination of a political and legislative process in which, in practice, all the organs of political sovereignty intervened: the President of the Republic, the Assembly of the Republic and the Government”.
This point is very important to understand the legitimacy of the commission and also this decision, which jointly involves all the organs of political sovereignty, the decision to add to the powers of the Court of Auditors the existence of a temporary special commission for the execution of these special measures”, he pointed out.
Subsequently, the President of the Assembly of the Republic stressed that the commission is an administrative body that works “in full independence” to parliament.
It is made up of a majority of members elected by the Assembly of the Republic (including its president) and the election is carried out by a very large majority of deputies. The commission, on the side of the Assembly of the Republic, represents a very broad political consensus, also benefiting from the appointment of members by the Council for the Prevention of Corruption and the Institute of the Public Real Estate and Construction Market”, he observed. .
According to the first report of the independent commission, presented today in parliament, there was little adherence to the special public procurement measures under the PRR in the second half of 2021.
The reduced adherence to the special regime is explained by several factors, among which “the novelty of the regime, compared to the security of application of a general regime already rooted in the practice and routine of the contracting entities, added to the lack of training and information against the new legal framework”.
“The uncertainties were increased by the doubts raised about its scope of application, in particular regarding the possible (un)need, within the scope of the PRR, of an order issued by the responsible minister, despite the fact that this Plan is financed with European funds”, can still be read in the report.
According to the report, the total number of procedures under the special contracting measures was 207 in the second half of 2021, for a total of 27.2 million euros.
Of this total, 44% are contracts for the purchase of services, corresponding to 8.6 million euros, followed by contracts for the purchase and lease of personal property (36%), with 3.9 million euros and works (20 %) with the highest value of 14.6 million euros.
Source: Observadora
