Spain publishes guidance for low value contracts

Spain’s current public procurement law imposes strong transparency requirements for most contracts below the financial thresholds, restricting the use of non-transparent procedures to contracts value at below €15,000 (services) or €40,000 (works) only. My take is that overall this is a positive step and one that I regret Portugal not following.

That does not mean the move is painless or without difficulties. To clarify the requirements and operational implications of the move, Spain’s Procurement Regulator Body (something Portugal should have copied too…) published its first ever binding guidance specifically on Art 118 of the Spanish Public Contracts Law.

The guidance makes a very restrictive interpretation of the grounds enabling the use of the non-transparent procedure, from the requirements (deemed as cumulative) to the potential loopholes of contract splitting or recurrent yearly contracts with the exact same object. Julio Gonzales has a few extra comments (in Spanish) on the Global Politics and Law blog.