The Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic has amended the Regulation on the Endorsement of Public Administration Contracting. This reform defines the Comptroller General’s responsibilities under the General Public Procurement Law. It highlights the obligation to migrate to electronic endorsement through the Unified Digital System (SICOP) while establishing deadlines and procedures for endorsing contracts by the Comptroller General’s Office and internal institutions. The Office will only be in charge of approving contracts as a requirement for taking effect. The reform also specifies the contracts subject to endorsement and the cases in which a price readjustment or revision mechanism analysis is part of the endorsement process. The Regulation as amended provides as follows:
- Clearly defines the function of the Office of the Comptroller General, in the case of endorsements within its competence, is to approve the contract, which is a requirement of effectiveness and not an oversight or annulment of the award, and set the limits of its scope of review.
- Exhaustively sets forth which contracts are subject to endorsement by the Comptroller’s Office.
- Indicates the cases the Comptroller’s Office will analyze for price readjustment or review as part of the endorsement process.
- Establishes deadlines for resolving the request for endorsement and its suspensions.
- Lists the contracts that require internal endorsement by the Administration and establishes the procedure for such an endorsement.
- Finally, institutes guidelines through Transitional I for the endorsement of contracts derived from public tenders and abbreviated bids, with awarding acts signed as of December 1.
The Amendment to the Regulation appears at https://www.imprentanacional.go.cr/gaceta/