Law No. 9/16, setting forth the legal regime of public procurement and of public contracts in Angola (“the Public Contracts Act”) was published on 16 May. Slightly over 5 years after the publication of Law No. 20/10, of 7 September 2010 (“the Public Procurement Act”), which established the previous legal framework for public procurement, the new Public Contracts Act states the aim of being a comprehensive overhaul of that framework, to fill in gaps that have been identified and to bring in improvements that were deemed warranted from the application of the previous statute.

The key novelties are:

• The range of contracting authorities subject to the public procurement law has been extended to include more entities, notably State-owned companies and those controlled by the State;
• The elimination of various public procurement procedures previously regulated: the negotiated procedure –which in practice was a direct award by another name–, the electronic dynamic acquisition system –which was totally detached from the reality of the country and therefore never utilized– and the special procedure for the acquisition of consultancy services, which henceforth become subject to the general rules;
• Other procurement procedures have basically been renamed: tenders by invitation only correspond to the previous restricted tenders without prequalification, while the simplified procurement procedure replaces the negotiated procedure but is still in essence a direct award, whereby a contracting authority invites one natural or legal person alone to submit a proposal;
• General rules have been introduced on framework agreements and call-offs under framework agreements, under terms and conditions still to be laid down in secondary legislation, thus eliminating a major inconsistency in the previous statute, which mentioned framework agreements in various contexts, while these did not exist in Angolan law;
• Updated thresholds applicable to the choice of which public procurement procedure to follow, depending on the estimated value of the contract: the direct award, or simplified procedure can be adopted for contracts with an estimated value up to Kz 5 million, tenders by invitation only can be adopted for contracts with an estimated value up to Kz 182 million, open tenders or restricted procedure with prequalification must be adopted whenever the estimated value of the contract is equal to or higher than Kz 182 million;
• The rules on administrative appeals have been amended: (i) administrative appeals become in general non-suspending, with the exception of those against decisions on qualification, commencement of the negotiation phase, decisions on awards and on contract execution; implied dismissal is established as the rule;
• A Public Record and Certification System is created, for building contractors and for suppliers, its operative details to be laid down in secondary legislation (even though one such system is already in existence within the State Property Directorate);
• In addition to the rules on performance of public works contracts, the new statute provides for rules on contracts for the lease or acquisition of movable goods and on service contracts.

The Public Contracts Act enters into force on 16 September 2016.

For more information, please contact:

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