Special public procurement regimes revoked

On October 1, 2022, Decree Law 66-A/2022 of September 30 came into force, revoking several decree-laws published as part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Regarding public procurement, several special regimes approved on an exceptional basis[1] in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have been revoked, including:

a)       the possibility of using the direct award procedure to conclude public works contracts, lease agreements, public supply contracts and public service contracts, regardless of the nature of the contracting authority, strictly to the extent necessary and for reasons of imperative urgency, if the contract related to the COVID-19 pandemic response;

b)       the possibility of using the simplified direct award procedure to conclude contracts for leasing or acquiring movable property or services that do not exceed EUR 20,000.00; and

c)        not applying the limits on repeat hiring of an economic operator by direct award, due to the economic operator having concluded high-value contracts under direct award procedures or having carried out works, supplied goods or provided services, free of charge, to the contracting authority during the period covering the current financial year and the two previous financial years.

In short, effective October 1, 2022, it is no longer possible to use these special public procurement regimes for urgent responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is considered that the situation no longer justifies applying them on an exceptional basis to streamline procedures, so the regimes have been revoked.