Argentina: Competition agency asks to participate in public tender bids

Pablo Trevisan, spokesman for Argentinean competition regulator CNDC, has said that the State too, and not only businesses, must work to adopt a competitive culture. With this in mind, the CNDC has reached an agreement with the Anti-corruption Bureau granting it presence in all ministry offices which may strike public contracts for infrastructure, transport or any other services.

The CNDC has already drafted new legislation dealing with this issue, which it presented before Congress three weeks ago. “We don’t know if it will become law this year, but what is important is that once we reach the implementation stage the independence of the agency must be respected” said Trevisan.

Mr. Trevisan followed with a recount of the advances and achievements of the recently re-instated agency, with procedures which used to take up to 6 years now being handled in under a year, with fresh cases already being tackled. “We have closed investigations that had been going on senselessly for years, with all the legal burdens this implies. We have also opened new cases which are advancing well, such as our look at credit cards.”

Full Content: Cronista

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