Mandatory Standard Bidding Documents: Suppression of Discretionary Power to Determine Procurement Specifications?

Abstract

Article 4 of Law 1882 of 2018 established that the national government must adopt mandatory tender specifications for certain contractual selection procedures. It also authorized the government to create and extend the obligatory nature of said documents to other selection modalities. Based on this provision and the regulations issued by the national government, the Public Procurement Agency (Colombia Compra Eficiente, ccE) is able to implement mandatory bidding specifications for agencies subject to the General Public Procurement Act. Given the regulatory powers of ca, this paper seeks to determine whether the discretion of contracting agencies for determining procurement specifications has been suppressed.