Through the official letter MH-DCoP-OF-0458-2023 of the Public Procurement Directorate of the Ministry of Finance, an interpretation has been made of Article 44 of the Regulations to the new Public Procurement Law regarding the obligation of the Administration to conduct market research.
There are two different stages in which a market study must determine the price: 1) before the issuance of the initial bidding decision and 2) during the analysis of the reasonability of the price. In this second instance, when the Administration is analyzing the participating bids and is unable to determine whether the price is reasonable under the provisions of subparagraph a) of article 44 of the RLCGP, either due to insufficient data or exceptional situations in the market, it must conduct a second market study, which will consider the amount and complexity of the tender, using the historical information available and all other data that enables a better understanding of the product or service.