Milei's government banned companies linked to corruption from participating in tenders

The Government of Javier Milei formalized a modification in the State's bidding and contracting regime that expands the restrictions on participating in procedures for works, goods, and services, with the objective of preventing access by companies linked to acts of corruption and to fraudulent conduct.

With the new regulations, the Executive Branch defined broader criteria of ineligibility for suppliers and contractors of the National State. From now on, companies related to corruption cases and those that record "fraudulent, collusive, coercive, and obstructive conduct, among others" will not be able to participate in bids, according to the official text.

The decree stipulates that state agencies must analyze the offers received and verify that the bidders are not included in the disqualification lists prepared by international organizations, in particular the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). This way, an additional control is incorporated based on standards used at the international level to prevent irregularities in public contracting.

In the grounds for the measure, Milei's Government maintained that "public contracting must be carried out within a framework of integrity, transparency, efficiency, and accountability".

In the same vein, the text emphasizes: "The Argentine Republic must adopt the necessary measures aimed at ensuring the effectiveness of the exclusion mechanism. Corruption undermines trust in public institutions, affects the services and benefits that the State must provide to citizens, distorts incentives, and leads to the inefficient use of public resources, weakening growth and development".

Kirchnerist corruption

The decision comes in a context marked by the judicial conviction of Cristina Kirchner in the Vialidad case, which investigated irregularities in the awarding of road works in the province of Santa Cruz between 2003 and 2015, during the first three Kirchnerist governments.

According to the courts, the fraudulent scheme included the awarding of rigged public contracts, the early granting of multimillion-dollar financial advances without justification, the abandonment of works without the application of penalties, and extensions of deadlines considered unjustified.

Meanwhile, Milei's Government recalled that since last year the registry of companies authorized to participate in public works bids has been modified. Currently, firms must register in the Co-Contractors Information System (SICO), a platform that unifies and modernizes the mechanisms for registration and qualification of State contractors.

These modifications are part of a broader process of reorganizing the role of the State in the economy and advancing a privatization plan. In that regard, at the end of last year the Government opened the tender for the sale of shares in Transener, the country's main energy transmission company, considered a key step toward the privatization of Enarsa. Likewise, the Executive Branch is moving forward with the second stage of the concession of national highways.