The Chamber approved, this Wednesday (18), a project that benefits Rio Grande do Sul with the relaxation of public bidding rules in areas experiencing calamities.
The , but returned after the Senate included changes to the text. The text now goes to presidential sanction.
The proposal is part of the government’s package of measures to serve Rio Grande do Sul, hit by floods in May.
The project was presented by deputies José Guimarães (PT-CE), leader of the government in the Chamber, and Marcon (PT-RS). The text repeated the content of two provisional measures (MPs) previously published by the Executive.
The project was the only item analyzed in the session, called at the last minute on Tuesday night (17) after appeals from the governor of Rio Grande do Sul, Eduardo Leite (PSDB).
What changes?
In practice, the proposal reduces the requirements set out in the New Tenders and Contracts Law for the acquisition of goods and contracting of works and services, including engineering, aimed at dealing with disasters.
Economic subsidies will also be guaranteed for credit operations for rural producers, micro-enterprises and small businesses harmed by extreme weather events.
Amendments
The rapporteur of the text in the Senate, Paulo Paim (PT-RS), had proposed six amendments to the text at the request of the government.
The rapporteur in the Chamber, deputy Bohn Gass (PT-RS), in turn, fully welcomed four changes.
The excluded section established that, when exempting the presentation of documentation on the contractor’s fiscal regularity, the constitutional provision that prohibits the hiring, by public authorities, of legal entities in debt to the social security system should be considered.
Gass argued that the section “would violate the public interest and equality” and could harm micro and small companies in emergency hiring.
The changes included by the Senate and confirmed in the Chamber determine:
- increase authorization for economic subsidies to R$3 billion;
- authorize the use of the Social Fund’s financial surplus, limited to R$20 billion, to finance actions to mitigate and adapt to climate change and combat public calamities;
- authorize the contribution of up to R$600 million to the Operations Guarantee Fund to cover operations within the scope of the National Program for Strengthening Family Agriculture (Pronaf) and the National Program for Support for Microenterprises and Small Businesses (Pronampe);
- ensure the effectiveness of the constitutional provision that peremptorily prohibits the contracting, with public authorities, of legal entities indebted to the social security system.
The amendment partially accepted was regarding an excerpt that determined that companies that received resources from financing lines should maintain or increase the number of jobs that existed prior to the public calamity.
Opposition members criticized this point. They even announced obstruction in protest against the amendment, but, in negotiations with the government, the section was modified so that companies have the obligation to maintain only the number of employees on the date of publication of the law.
Even with the agreement made to change the opinion, the opposition maintained a highlight on the text for separate analysis and removal of the section. In the vote, the opposition was defeated and the report with the agreed adjustments prevailed.
Changes
The relaxed rules for bidding may be adopted when the governor or the President of the Republic recognizes the state of calamity in the territory.
Contracts signed based on the future law will last for one year, extendable for an equal period “as long as the conditions and prices remain advantageous for the public administration” while facing the calamity situation.
In the Chamber, the rapporteur included an excerpt to combat speculative prices and determined that a “price check” would be carried out after the 30-day period of the first estimate.
Among other changes, the project allows:
- the exemption from preparing preliminary technical studies for common works and services;
- contracting risk management only during contract management;
- the possibility of simplified presentation of a preliminary project or basic project;
- reducing the minimum deadlines for submitting proposals and bids by half;
- extend current contracts for up to 12 months;
- verbal contracts, of up to R$100 thousand, when the urgency of the situation does not allow contractual formalization;
- the exemption from the requirement for fiscal and economic-financial regularity documents in places with few suppliers.
