News about Public Procurement in Paraguay

Through Decision DNCP 2859/2020, the National Directorate of Public Procurement has released the third version of the Standard Specifications and Letters of Invitation, within the framework of Law 2051/03 application, to be used by State Offices and Entities, Public Limited Companies with Majority Participation of the State and Municipalities. The same is in force as from July 15, 2020, and applicable to contracting procedures carried out by conventional means or Electronic Auction.

Art. 3 of said provision establishes that all bidders must adjust their bidding processes and purchases in a mandatory manner to the guidelines governing the standard documents, through their respective Contracting Operational Units and Project Executing Units.

There are 12 new standard documents that entail an organized structure for the purpose of expediting public purchases for Bidding parties, bearing in mind the new specifications and the improved version of the existing ones. Such documents are the following:

a) Specifications for School Breakfast – Snacks Program *new

b) Specifications for School Lunch – Dinner Program (Catering) *new

c) Specifications for School Lunch – Dinner Program (Made) *new

d) Specifications for the Acquisition of Supplies for School Lunch – Dinner Program *new

e) Specifications of Goods and Services *improved version

f) Letter of Invitation for Goods and Services *improved version

g) Specifications for Security and Surveillance *improved version

h) Specifications for Full Cleaning *improved version

i) Specifications for Insurance on Properties *improved version

j) Letter of Invitation for Insurance on Properties *improved version

k) Specifications of Works *improved version

l) Specifications of Works for Municipalities *improved version

They are published in the Public Procurement Information System (SICP) in the “Legal Framework – Standard Document” section.

Finally, we announce that the DNCP has also published an explanatory document in order to make known the procurement or public purchase system funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), taking into account that although these bidding processes are governed by their own Procurement Policies, they are announced and published at every stage on the DNCP portal, as said public procurement portal is the only system that provides a database with full information on the parties involved in bidding processes. It is important to highlight the fact that in Paraguay there are, and there were in the past, a number of infrastructure projects with financing from multilaterals such as the IDB, CAF, World Bank, Fonplata, European Investment Bank, among others. This modality is usually convenient for the public sector, given the excellent financial conditions in which Paraguay has been in debt for a few years now. But for the private sector as well this type of project with assured financing to the contracting public sector allows to substantially reduce the risk of potential delays in payments or multi-year budgeting to face the progress of the work during the project construction term. For this reason, they tend to attract a greater number of local and foreign bidders.