The Ministry of Economy launched a transparency dashboard that discloses public information on foreign company participation in Brazilian public bids, through the Unified Supplier Registry System (SICAF). It reflects regulatory improvements carried out in 2020 that facilitated the participation of foreign companies in government procurement in Brazil.
The Ministry of Economy launched a foreign company participation in public bidding dashboard, which collects and publicizes public information on foreign company participation in government procurement in Brazil, through the Unified Supplier Registry System (SICAF), and with information from the Brazilian Comprasnet system for government procurement. The dashboard is designed as a transparency tool for disclosing public spending, but also represents a relevant source of data on foreign suppliers in Brazil.
The SICAF system is legally provided by the Brazilian Government Procurement Law (Law n. 8.666/1993)’s article 34, ruled by Decree n. 3.722/2001. Its current regulatory disposition is provided by the Ministry of Economy’s Normative Instruction n. 3/2018, whose article 20 provides for foreign company participation in public bids. That normative instruction was amended in 2020, in order to facilitate public bidding participation of foreign companies (companies without the legal establishment of an affiliated company in Brazil).
The foreign company participation dashboard collects and discloses public information from SICAF-registered foreign companies, including company name, country of origin, public bidding participation, and the approved contractual information (in case of victory in a public bid), as well as timeline information.
The dashboard also summarizes the total amounts of SICAF-registered companies, companies accredited for public bidding, companies that participated in public bids, and companies that won at public bids. As of April 7, 2021, those total amounts were 123, 71, 30, and 11, respectively, according to the dashboard data. Additionally, the Ministry of Economy launched a new SICAF operational guide for foreign companies, available at the SICAF portal, while a regulatory guide for foreign company participation in public bids is also available since November 2020 (both in Portuguese).
