I. EDITORIAL – MODIFICATIONS TO THE PUBLIC PROCUREMENT CODE

The Decree-law n.º 111-B/2007 approved several and important amendments to the  Decree-law no. 18/2008, of January 29 (Portuguese Public Procurement Code, “PPC”), transposing several European Directives and establishing many new regulations.

The new legal framework allows the introduction measures of simplification, de-bureaucratization and flexibilization as well as measures towards the transparency and sound public procurement. Note some of the most relevant changes:

i. New rules for the transfer of moveable assets by public entities, definitively or temporarily, of the property or right to use, allowing, for instance, the renting and leasing of the asset.

ii. The implementation of a new procedure for the acquisition of goods, construction works or innovative services;

iii. Concerning the procurement procedures, the adoption of a new standard based on the most economically beneficial offer, based on the highest quality-price ratio or an evaluation of the price or cost, without ruling out the possibility of procurement for the lowest price;

iv. The shortening of the minimum time limits for the presentation of offers and applications concerning procurement procedures of value below the European thresholds, that do not require publication in the Official Journal of the EU;

v. Amendment to the mutual agreement procurement procedure, establishing a general shortening of the deadlines; reducing the maximum limits to € 30.000,00, for works contracts, and € 20.000,00, for purchase of goods and services contracts; as well as providing for the possibility of adopting the simplified procedure for the procurement of small public works up to € 5.000,00.

vi. The duty to state reasons, based on a cost-benefit analysis, on proceedings of procurement of contracts of value upwards of € 5.000,00;

vii. Introduction of the position of contract manager intended to permanently accompany and monitor the execution of a contract, on a technical as well as financial level, ensuring the quality of the work of the public entities; reporting any deviations, defects and abuses and proposing corrective measures;

viii. Prohibition of the use of the criterion of the moment of the submission of a proposal as a tie-breaker between proposals;

Such deep changes to the Code are only applicable at the 1^st of January of 2018. Finally, we also highlight the new regulation for securities, related to the prohibition of bearer shares and creating the mechanism to convert bearer shares in nominative shares.