Since the beginning of his term, President Luis Abinader governed under a state of emergency that was established in the previous term, specifically on March 19, 2020.
From that date, the state of emergency lasted for more than a year and a half, until it ended on October 11, when through Decree 622-21, the Executive Power ordered its lifting together with the curfew.
During this period, some public institutions were authorized to carry out their purchasing and contracting processes in a simpler and more expeditious manner, without submitting to ordinary procedures. Those exceptions are over.
In August 2020, the President authorized, through decree 401-20, to carry out emergency purchases and contracts for 45 days from the Ministry of Public Health, the National Health Service (SNS), the Essential Medicines Program and Central Logistics Support (Promesecal) and the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD).
In the first year of the administration of this Government, 50,649 contracts were awarded for an amount of RD $ 82,398 million and more than half of them were carried out under the modality of exception, according to a special bulletin prepared by the General Directorate of Public Procurement (DGCP) that covers the period August 2020-July 2021.
“In the distribution of the total amount traded there is evidence of an important participation of 52.64% of the amount awarded directed to exception processes”, indicates the document, which states that this amount is equivalent to RD $ 43,374 million.
Exceptions
The national emergency situation, defined in Law 340-06 as “force majeure circumstances generated by serious and imminent events, such as earthquakes, floods, droughts, serious internal commotion, external aggression, international war, natural catastrophes, and others that come from force majeure at the national and regional level ”is considered an exceptional case, therefore, in this context, purchases and contracting of goods, services, works and concessions are carried out more expeditiously.
Section four of article four of the law establishes that in cases of national emergency, in order to carry out a contract or grant a purchase or service order, the contracting entity does not need the certification of the existence of funds or of the commitment fee (limit of the budget credit).
“Emergency exception procedures may be initiated without the budget appropriation certificate and contracts may be signed and purchase orders without the certificate of quota availability to compromise …”, establishes a DGCP guide prepared for purchases and hiring for emergencies.
Quick registration
The guide indicates that in the emergency procedures there may be potential national bidders who are not registered as State providers and that is why the DGCP implemented a simplified process to register, which could take a maximum of 24 hours.
The aforementioned bulletin establishes that in the first year of management the registration of new State providers increased 163.74% in relation to the same period (August 2020-July 2021) of the previous year. The total number of companies registered as suppliers amounted to 99,275. It also indicates that some 266 were disabled and suspended.
No guarantees are required
According to the guide, due to the speed with which the declared emergency procedures are carried out, the authorized contracting institutions do not require the presentation of the guarantee of seriousness of the offer. This is what guarantees that the supplier will comply with what was committed in the tender and as a guarantee it must constitute a guarantee equivalent to 1% of the total amount of the offer.
Thorough hiring.
In exceptional cases, public institutions have a maximum period of three calendar days (72 hours) to evaluate the technical and economic offers and make the award. In normal situations this process is more thorough and takes longer.
Term.
The contract or purchase or service order must be formalized within a maximum period of two calendar days or 48 hours.
Eliminated.
These conditions that made the public procurement procedure simpler have been eliminated with the end of the state of emergency.
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