By Regulation No. RE-SERCOP-2016-0000072 published on the Official Registry on July 29, 2020, the Codification of Regulations issued by SERCOP was amended.
The main amendments are:
- In the technical specifications, terms of reference, market research, proforma invoices or quotations, each work, good or service must be broken down and listed.
- It is mandatory for public entities and suppliers to execute relevant documents from the pre-contractual, contractual and execution phase by means of electronic signature; and their validation shall be done through the official system FirmaEC. Additionally, suppliers must have a valid electronic signature certificate issued by one of the certification entities, authorized by the Telecommunications Agency. This obligation will be enforceable within 90 days from July 29, 2020.
- Individual and entities, both national and foreign, interested in qualifying as suppliers for the State, when registering shall select only those projects, goods and/or services which codes within the Central Product Classifier, CPC, are directly related to their economic activity registered in the tax ID (RUC), and their statutory corporate purpose. In the case of foreign entities, they must justify their commercial activity. If the documents are in a foreign language, the Spanish translation must also be submitted.
In the case of associations and consortiums, all the participants must have registered the CPC codes related to the procedure. If the contract includes several CPC codes, at least one participant must be qualified for each code. A participant will not be permitted to qualify for the execution of a CPC code that is not related to its activity or corporate purpose.
In the case of requests for registering new suppliers in the supplier’s registry (RUP), and requests for increasing CPC codes for suppliers already registered, the requirement described above shall be enforceable within 90 days from July 29, 2020. - Government entities that create associations and consortiums shall participate in equal conditions with the other interested suppliers. For this purpose, they would not be able to take advantage of the provisions of article 2(8) of the Public Procurement System Law: without considering the percentage of participation of the members of the association or consortium.
- The award resolution in all public procurement procedures shall be issued in a term not less than 3 days from the date the administrative act that ends the bid qualification, bidding, or negotiation, is issued. This resolution shall be published in the SERCOP portal within 1 day.
If the procedure is not awarded within 30 days, the entity must notify the SERCOP the reasons.
In the event of a complaint or claim filed before SERCOP regarding the procurement procedure, or by SERCOP’s own initiative, the contracting entity, once notified, may not award, or enter into the contract until SERCOP decides on the matter. - In public procurement procedures, except for emergency procedures, once the procedure has been awarded, the contract shall be entered into with the awarded bidder after at least 3 working days from the date of the award.
- Emergency Contracts:
- Public entities, besides being subject to the Public Procurement System Law, shall be subject to the procedures established in the SERCOP regulations.
- The maximum authority of the contracting entity or its delegate, shall carry out the qualification of suppliers verifying their legal, economic, and technical capacity, through an administrative act.
- The economic activity of the suppliers shall be related to the object of the contract. In the event of non-compliance, the contracting entity may unilaterally declare the termination of the contract.
- Regulations establish a specific procedure for public procurement during an emergency. This procedure does not apply for medicines, medical devices, and supplies, biochemical or diagnostic reagents and other strategic goods or the provision of health or funeral services.
In this procedure, suppliers shall be required to accept the conditions and to expressly adhere to the technical conditions defined by the contracting entity. In the event of non-compliance, the contracting entity may unilaterally declare the termination of the contract.
The decision to award the contract or to declare it void shall be taken by the highest authority of the contracting entity. - Emergency procedures for the procurement of listed goods and services are prohibited unless the highest authority of the contracting entity issues a decision stating the reasons that makes it impossible to meet or overcome the emergency. This resolution will be subject to analysis by the SERCOP.
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