Ecuadorian legislation regulates the use of the association or joint accounts and the consortium as forms of associations for public procurement, which facilitates the participation of the private sector in business with the State.

As part of the development of commercial activities, it is common for natural and legal persons to use forms of associations that allows them to jointly and efficiently conduct businesses in the private and public sectors. A summary of the legal framework applicable to these forms for public procurement is presented below.

The law establishes as forms of association: the association or joint accounts, the consortium or consortium agreement; and, joint venture.

In the area of public procurement, the legislation only admits the use of the association and the consortium. The latter is the most widely used in practice.

The association or joint accounts defines the Corporate Law as a contract whereby a merchant gives one or more persons participation in the results of one or more operations or of all their commercial activity, in exchange for a certain participation or contribution. The management and accountability of the business is the responsibility of the person in whose business third party participation occurs; the law grants the participants ample freedom to agree on the terms of the association.

The consortium or consortium agreement is a contract provided in the Commercial Code, whereby two or more people, natural or legal, are associated with the purpose of participating in a contest, project or contract, or in several at the same time. Associates do not lose their independence and autonomy. Participants in a consortium respond jointly and severally for the obligations acquired by the consortium. In other laws the consortium is usually called "temporary union."

For contracting with public entities, the law provides that the consortium agreement must be constituted by public deed and that, therein, regardless of other provisions or regulations of the relations between the participants, the declaration of their joint and several liability for the fulfillment of its obligations derived from the contract with the public entity. In addition, you must obtain the Unique Registry of Suppliers, RUP.

To participate as an offeror in the pre-contractual stage of a public procurement procedure, the law allows the presentation of a partnership or consortium commitment, which must also meet specific requirements such as the declaration of the obligation to constitute the consortium previous to the subscription of the respective contract.

The association and the consortium have no legal status of their own. However, for tax purposes they are considered as independent subjects of their members. As such, they must obtain their own unique taxpayers registry or RUC and keep their accounts as if they were a company.

Each of the participants is jointly and indivisibly responsible for fulfilling the obligations arising from the contract. In this sense, public procurement regulations explicitly ratify that the participation in an association or a consortium does not make up for the loss of the legal status of each of the participating suppliers, since the association or consortium does not constitute a different legal entity. In this way, the same regulations provide that the responsibility for the execution of the contract is indivisible and complete for the associates. In order to determine the experience and compliance of the consortiums in previous contracts with the public sector, the contracting entities must consider the sum of the experiences of the participants when evaluating the offers.

The association or consortium cannot be dissolved or terminated by the will of the contracting parties, nor may it change its conformation until the end of the contract, unless expressly authorized by the contracting entity.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.