The Federal Executive Branch approved the implementing regulations to the recent law on Public-Private Partnership contracts. Said law aims to encourage private investments by providing important guarantees on public procurement, and its regulations entail a step forward in that direction.
On February 20, 2017, Decree No. 118/2017 (the "Decree") -which approves the implementing regulations to the Public-Private Partnership Law No. 27,328- was published in the Official Gazette (the "Regulations" and the "PPP Law" respectively, and jointly, the "PPP Regime").
The Decree declares all projects developed under the provisions of the PPP Law to be of national interest, and abrogates Decree No. 967/2005 and its regulatory and complementary laws, which constituted the former National Public-Private Association Regime.
The PPP Regime was promoted by the actual Government to provide the rule of law needed to attract investments, particularly in the infrastructure sector.
The Regulations implement and specify the rulings of the PPP Law. In doing so, and with the aim of complementing the issuance of a tool which allows for more balanced and predictable cooperation between the private and public sector, the Regulations complete and provide detail on, among others, the following provisions of the PPP Law:
- creation of trusts;
- contract performance rules;
- preservation of the contract's economic-financial equation;
- procedure for selecting contractors;
- financing and assignment of rights as guarantee;
- contractor's compensation and revision mechanisms;
- dispute resolution mechanisms (dispute boards and arbitration); and
- anti-corruption rules.
The detail provided by the Regulations is central to the PPP Law's effective implementation. In order to accomplish its purpose, the regulatory provisions will have to be complemented by their actual enforcement. Hence, it will be important to closely follow the implementation of the PPP Regime so as to verify the realization of its objectives.
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.
We operate a free-to-view policy, asking only that you register in order to read all of our content. Please login or register to view the rest of this article.