Lisbon, Nov. 19, 2024 (Lusa) - The president of Portugal on Tuesday promulgated, with reservations, the decree of parliament approving special public procurement measures for projects financed by European funds under the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP).
According to a note published on the Presidency of the Republic's website, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has "reservations about the exceptional regime", which is " not very favourable to the contradictory and the protection of trust, of urgent administrative actions of pre-contractual litigation relating to projects financed or co-financed by the PRR."
He promulgated this decree "because of the worrying delay in the implementation of this [PRR], and that this regime was presented as decisive in unblocking that delay - which time will soon allow us to test - and to which a clear majority voted in favour or abstained in parliament."
Based on a government proposal, the decree in question was approved in a final global vote on 18 October, with PSD and CDS-PP voting in favour, PS, IL and PAN abstaining, and Chega, BE, PCP and Livre voting against.
Also today, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa promulgated, with doubts, three pieces of government legislation, two of which merge the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and the Centre for the Management of the Government IT Network and another that changes the organisation of the Entity of Shared Services of the Public Administration, I.P..
These enactments were announced through another note on the official website of the Presidency of the Republic, which reads that the head of state has "doubts about the underlying logic and effects, without a global rethink of the State's Central Administration - in particular, the ministries".
Even so, the President of the Republic decided to promulgate these decree-laws "given that the state, through the previous government, proposed these organisational changes to the European Union as a target to be met for using PRR funds".
The Council approved these decree-laws of Ministers on 29 October and, according to the communiqué from that government meeting, "begin the merger of various entities into the General Secretariat of the Government, in a gradual and continuous process" that fulfils "the ambition of the 1st phase of the Reform of Public Administration" and implements "an objective set out in the PRR".
The parliamentary decree on which Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa expressed reservations adds to the existing legislation on special public procurement measures the "approval of a special prior inspection regime by the Court of Auditors of acts and contracts intended for the implementation of projects financed or co-financed by European funds".
It also provides for the "approval of an exceptional regime applicable to urgent administrative pre-contractual litigation actions aimed at challenging award acts relating to contract formation procedures intended for the implementation of projects financed or co-financed by European funds" and the "approval of a regime for recourse to arbitration in contracts within the scope of the concentration of services in the Campus XXI building".
New articles have been added to the law establishing "specificities" for "acts and contracts intended for the execution of projects financed or co-financed by European funds are subject to special prior inspection by the Court of Auditors", an "Exceptional Regime for Urgent Pre-Contractual Litigation Action", rules on "recourse to arbitration" and "Formation of contracts within the scope of the concentration of services at Campus XXI".
The Budget, Finance, and Public Administration Committee presented the final text that parliament approved on 18 October, based on a bill that the government submitted on 9 September. The decree was published in the Diário da Parlamento da República on 28 October and went to the Palácio de Belém a fortnight ago, on 04 November.
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