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Legal alert no. 71
National Site of Suppliers of the Portuguese State.
On September 12th, 2018, Decree-Law no. 72/2018 (hereinafter "DL no. 72/2018") was published in the Portuguese Official Gazette, which created the National Site of Suppliers of the Portuguese State (hereinafter "Site").
The creation of the Site aims to simplify the procedures of verification of the inexistence of impediments to hire (see article 1, no. 2 of DL 72/2018), as well as provided for in article 55, of the Portuguese Public Procurement Code, approved by Decree-Law no. 18/2008, of January 29th, in its current version (hereinafter "PPC").
Thus, although the suppliers, i.e., those who have participated in public procurement procedures and their execution (see article 3, no. 1 of DL no. 72/2018) give their express consent, the Site aggregates information regarding the following aspects (see article 1, paragraph 3, a) to c) of DL no. 72/2018):
i) Information on the tax situation before the Tax and Customs Authority;
ii) Information on the contributory situation before Social Security;
iii) Their suitability and of the respective members of the administrative and management bodies, under the terms set forth in paragraphs b) and h), no. 1, of article 55, of the PPC.
The connection to this Site is relevant since it exempts the suppliers from delivering the qualification documents, demonstrating the fulfillment of their tax obligations, as well as their suitability (see article 3, no. 2 of the DL no. 72/2018).
On the other hand, the information provided in the Site may be used for the decision and selection in the scope of direct award or prior consultation procedures (see article 10, no. 3, of the DL no. 72/2018).
The registration of the supplier can be canceled, at any time, by its own initiative, or by the IMPIC, IP, in case of termination of activity in Portugal (see article 14, nos. 1 and 2 of DL no. 72/2018).
Finally, the operators connecting to the Site do not need to maintain updated data on tax situations, as well as on their suitability (see article 9, first part, the DL no. 72/2018).
This is not the case for the following information (therefore, there is an obligation to keep it up to date), which can be made available on an optional basis (see articles 9, second part and 8, no. 3 (a) to (c), both of DL no. 72/2018):
i) Information on its geographical distribution;
ii) CPV codes of the main goods, services and works;
iii) E-mail and website addresses.
Likewise, should the aforementioned documents demonstrate that the Portuguese State supplier does not have its situation regularized for public procurement purposes, the Site will notify the same in order to update or clarify the situation with the competent body, within 10 working days (see article 11 of the DL no. 72/2018).
Additionally, we inform that the connection to this Site requires the payment of a fee which amount shall be fixed by joint Ordinance of the Ministries of Finance and Justice (see article 17 of the DL no. 72/2018).
These rules also apply, with the necessary adaptations, to the Autonomous Regions of Madeira and the Azores (see article 20 of the DL no. 72/2018).
Finally, this Decree-Law will only enter into force for procedures beginning after January 1, 2019, subject to the verification of tax situation of the suppliers for payment purposes, also as of January 1, 2019 (see article 21, nos. 1 and 2 of the DL no. 72/2018).
To access the full text of the DL no. 72/2018, please access here.