The role of the contract manager in the execution of public contracts
Posted: Thu Dec 26, 2024 3:38 am
The contract manager appears as a tool to promote quality performance by all those who collaborate in carrying out tasks of public relevance.
What motivated the creation of the contract manager role?
Permanently monitoring the execution of the contract is the main mission of the Contract Manager.
Of the various changes that were introduced in 2017 to the Public Contracts Code, approved by Decree-Law No. 18/2008, of January 28, the role of the contract manager can be considered as the one that had the greatest national influence.
This new figure emerges, essentially:
1. Raising awareness of the need to promote greater professionalization of contract management;
2. With a view to achieving the desired results, as a result of the india whatsapp number database of the ideas of the new public management;
3. From the recommendations of the Court of Auditors, which, since 2009, has addressed the need for a "project manager" in large-scale and high-value public works contracts.
Objectives of creating the contract manager role
How important is the Contract Manager?
Following the recommendations of the Court of Auditors, or at least what would be its intention, the aim is to ensure the existence of an actor whose function is to:
1. Ensure monitoring of contracts;
2. Ensure the efficient management of public contracts;
3. Promote rigor, transparency, control of expenditure and good management of public funds.
To achieve these ends, the manager will have to be responsible for taking all necessary measures to:
Prevent deviations during the execution of the contract, whether in terms of price or deadline (essentially);
Foresee the possibility of harm to the public contractor, taking the necessary measures to avoid this danger.
Reflection of the growing concern with performance and rationality in decision-making, not from a strict point of view of financial gain, but, in a broader context, of seeking a balance between the assessment/control of cost/expenditure in relation to the benefit/satisfaction of the public interest to be achieved.
Need for rules that govern the actions of the Contract Manager
In Report No. 17/2009-2nd Section, it is highlighted that "The Government should promote the necessary mechanisms so that the entities managing public works projects adopt, as a rule, the appointment of a Manager per Project, with specific functions in each project and, also, a system of incentive/penalization of the various monitoring and advisory committees that advise the owner of the project.
It should also proceed with the legal definition of the role of project manager and, in addition, indicate the characteristics of the projects that must have a manager, as well as specify the functions, responsibilities and professional qualifications that they must possess”.
Contract Manager Competencies
Article 290-A determines that:
1. The public contractor must appoint a contract manager, with the function of permanently monitoring the execution of the contract, "whose identity must be included in the clauses of the contract, constituting one of its mandatory references” [cf. article 96.º/1, paragraph j)];
2. In situations involving "contracts with special characteristics of technical or financial complexity or with a duration of more than three years", and without prejudice to the functions defined by each public contractor, the manager must prepare quantitative and qualitative performance indicators appropriate to each type of contract, which allow, among other aspects, to measure the performance levels of the co-contractor, the financial, technical and material performance of the contract.
3. If the manager finds any anomalous situations in the execution of the contract, he/she must immediately report them to the competent body, proposing corrective measures that, in each case, prove to be appropriate;
4. The public contractor may delegate to the contract manager the powers to adopt the corrective measures proposed by him, "except in matters of modification and termination of the contract”.
The contract manager according to the Public Contracts Code
The contract manager according to the Public Contracts Code?
The national legislator did not expressly define in which contracts the contract manager had to be appointed, nor did it distinguish between contracts based on their respective contract price.
The national legislator determined, instead, in article 96, paragraph 1, subparagraph i), of the Public Contracts Code, that the clauses of the contract must include "The identification of the contract manager on behalf of the contracting authority, in accordance with article 290-A”.
If this identification is not included in the contract, the legislator determined that the lack of this element leads to the most serious invalidity: the nullity of the contract (unless this element is included in the documents identified in paragraph 2 of the same article, such as, for example, in the specifications of the pre-contractual procedure).
Requirement to reduce the contract to writing:
1. In the case of a Lease or Purchase Agreement for Movable Property or Purchase of Services when the contract price exceeds (euro) 10,000.
2. In the case of a Public Works Contract, when the Contract Price Exceeds (euro) 15,000.
Only when the contract must be reduced to writing, as determined in article 96 of the Public Contracts Code, is the appointment of the contract manager required.
What motivated the creation of the contract manager role?
Permanently monitoring the execution of the contract is the main mission of the Contract Manager.
Of the various changes that were introduced in 2017 to the Public Contracts Code, approved by Decree-Law No. 18/2008, of January 28, the role of the contract manager can be considered as the one that had the greatest national influence.
This new figure emerges, essentially:
1. Raising awareness of the need to promote greater professionalization of contract management;
2. With a view to achieving the desired results, as a result of the india whatsapp number database of the ideas of the new public management;
3. From the recommendations of the Court of Auditors, which, since 2009, has addressed the need for a "project manager" in large-scale and high-value public works contracts.
Objectives of creating the contract manager role
How important is the Contract Manager?
Following the recommendations of the Court of Auditors, or at least what would be its intention, the aim is to ensure the existence of an actor whose function is to:
1. Ensure monitoring of contracts;
2. Ensure the efficient management of public contracts;
3. Promote rigor, transparency, control of expenditure and good management of public funds.
To achieve these ends, the manager will have to be responsible for taking all necessary measures to:
Prevent deviations during the execution of the contract, whether in terms of price or deadline (essentially);
Foresee the possibility of harm to the public contractor, taking the necessary measures to avoid this danger.
Reflection of the growing concern with performance and rationality in decision-making, not from a strict point of view of financial gain, but, in a broader context, of seeking a balance between the assessment/control of cost/expenditure in relation to the benefit/satisfaction of the public interest to be achieved.
Need for rules that govern the actions of the Contract Manager
In Report No. 17/2009-2nd Section, it is highlighted that "The Government should promote the necessary mechanisms so that the entities managing public works projects adopt, as a rule, the appointment of a Manager per Project, with specific functions in each project and, also, a system of incentive/penalization of the various monitoring and advisory committees that advise the owner of the project.
It should also proceed with the legal definition of the role of project manager and, in addition, indicate the characteristics of the projects that must have a manager, as well as specify the functions, responsibilities and professional qualifications that they must possess”.
Contract Manager Competencies
Article 290-A determines that:
1. The public contractor must appoint a contract manager, with the function of permanently monitoring the execution of the contract, "whose identity must be included in the clauses of the contract, constituting one of its mandatory references” [cf. article 96.º/1, paragraph j)];
2. In situations involving "contracts with special characteristics of technical or financial complexity or with a duration of more than three years", and without prejudice to the functions defined by each public contractor, the manager must prepare quantitative and qualitative performance indicators appropriate to each type of contract, which allow, among other aspects, to measure the performance levels of the co-contractor, the financial, technical and material performance of the contract.
3. If the manager finds any anomalous situations in the execution of the contract, he/she must immediately report them to the competent body, proposing corrective measures that, in each case, prove to be appropriate;
4. The public contractor may delegate to the contract manager the powers to adopt the corrective measures proposed by him, "except in matters of modification and termination of the contract”.
The contract manager according to the Public Contracts Code
The contract manager according to the Public Contracts Code?
The national legislator did not expressly define in which contracts the contract manager had to be appointed, nor did it distinguish between contracts based on their respective contract price.
The national legislator determined, instead, in article 96, paragraph 1, subparagraph i), of the Public Contracts Code, that the clauses of the contract must include "The identification of the contract manager on behalf of the contracting authority, in accordance with article 290-A”.
If this identification is not included in the contract, the legislator determined that the lack of this element leads to the most serious invalidity: the nullity of the contract (unless this element is included in the documents identified in paragraph 2 of the same article, such as, for example, in the specifications of the pre-contractual procedure).
Requirement to reduce the contract to writing:
1. In the case of a Lease or Purchase Agreement for Movable Property or Purchase of Services when the contract price exceeds (euro) 10,000.
2. In the case of a Public Works Contract, when the Contract Price Exceeds (euro) 15,000.
Only when the contract must be reduced to writing, as determined in article 96 of the Public Contracts Code, is the appointment of the contract manager required.