MADRID, 16 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Government is working on a modification of the Public Sector Contracts Law to regulate in detail how an administration should act in the event of detecting possible anti-competitive practices during a tender.
This is stated in the response given by the Executive to the economic spokesperson for Citizens in Congress, María Muñoz, who had asked the Government if it contemplated measures to improve the detection of these practices.
All this after the sanction by the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC) to six of the main construction companies –Acciona, Dragados (ACS), FCC, Ferrovial, OHL and Sacyr– with fines for 203.6 millions of euros.
Muñoz reproached the Government for how it was possible that the General State Administration had not been able to detect a cartel that, according to the investigation completed by the CNMC, had altered thousands of public tenders for the construction and civil works of infrastructure for 25 years.
In its response, collected by Europa Press, the Executive specifies that the Public Sector Contract Law itself contemplates measures to avoid anti-competitive practices, in collaboration with the CNMC, and particularly cites an article that establishes the transfer of evidence founded by part of the contracting table or body.
The aforementioned article includes the suspension of the contracting procedure when such indications are submitted, and also provides for the regulation of the procedure referred to in this paragraph in a regulatory manner.
However, the Government states in its response that it is working on a modification of the legal provision itself, in order to “regulate in detail” in the Contracts Act what procedure to follow in the event of detecting this type of indication.
It is not the only measure that the Executive advances, by ensuring that the future National Strategy for Public Procurement will contemplate measures aimed at promoting competition and avoiding practices contrary to it, and that these will be “compulsory for the entire public sector.”
