SAN SALVADOR ( Associated Press) – The Salvadoran Congress, dominated by President Nayib Bukele’s New Ideas party, approved a new public procurement law on Wednesday that it billed as a necessary modernization, though opposition parties said it would Will encourage corruption.
The new law was approved by 66 of the 84 delegates to the unicameral Congress, while 15 opposition delegates voted against and three abstained.
The Public Administration Procurement and Contracts Act (LACAP), in force since October 2009, regulates the procurement and contracting of works, goods and services by public administration institutions.
When discussing the regulations, Jose Urbina, representative of the Nuevas Ideas party, explained that the new public procurement law seeks to modernize administrative contracts and make procedures more efficient, and “allows it to be harmonized with new technologies of information.” will give”.
“The previous rules were obsolete. Now, we will approve a new legal body to contract in an agile, clear, timely, efficient and transparent manner”, said Dania González, deputy of Nuevas Ideas.
However, Anabel Beloso, a deputy from the leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), said she voted against the new rules, because “it eliminates transparency and legitimizes corruption.”
He confirmed that million-dollar contracts were handed over to relatives and friends of current government officials during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Deputy Claudia Ortiz from the conservative VAMOS party assured that this administration has been hindered by LACAP as it was clear in banning officials from bidders or contractors. “Now, with the procurement law in place, the door is open for all kinds of contracts to be awarded to friends, accomplices and financiers.”
Shortly after the approval of the new public procurement law, the Nuevas Ideas party approved legislation for the creation of the National Public Procurement Directorate (DINAC), which would be the governing body for public procurement at the national level and act as a decentralized Will do Institution. With administrative and budgetary autonomy.
DINAC will plan, monitor, supervise, modernize and control everything related to public procurement, as stated.
