Basic and general criteria are set forth in Law 8,666/93 and Law 13,303/16 regarding documentation that must be presented in every public procurement procedure. These basic documents are, generally , related to (i) legal status (e.g., corporate documents), (ii) technical qualification – proof that the company can perform the contract's purpose adequately, (iii) economic and financial qualification – proof of the company's financial health, (iv) tax regularity – proof that the company duly complies with its fiscal obligations, and (v) declaration that the company complies with Article 7, section XXXIII of the Federal Constitution regarding employment of under-aged people.

Those basic criteria are required in every public procurement procedure. They are the criteria specified by the public administrator according to the needs of the public entity and the peculiarities of the acquisition, and always under the general principles of the Public Administration mentioned above (e.g. the technical criteria must not restrict competition more than strictly necessary to meet the administration's needs).

As a rule, in any and all public procurements the Administration has to establish in a clear and satisfactory manner the conditions of the procedure, avoiding any unnecessary information that might adversely affect the competition among the interest parties. More precisely, the Administration has to request proposals for the exact object of the procurement. All the relevant aspects of the public tender procedure must be detailed in the RFP in order to avoid doubts by interested parties.

No. Once the request for proposal is published, bidders can ask for qualifications from the public entity or challenge aspects of the request for proposal and the draft of contract that is presented with it. After the public tender procedure, the contract must be signed as it is defined by the request for proposal.

Note that in case of waiver of public tender, which usually happens when competition is impossible - mainly when only one company can provide the goods or services to be procured by the public entity - there is margin for direct negotiation of the contract with the public entity. That said, the law only allows for some clauses to be negotiated and traditionally public entities do not accept the negotiation of issues that are common in private contract, such as limitation of liability.

Yes. Law 8,666/93 protects Small and Medium enterprises participants in a public tender procedure. Based in Complimentary Law 123/2006, small and medium enterprises can have preferential treatment in acquiring goods and services by the Public Authorities.

Public Administration must provide differentiated and simplified treatment to small and medium enterprises to promote economic and social development at the municipal and regional levels, the efficiency of public policies and the encouragement of technological innovation. Therefore, Public Administration:

1. must carry out a public bidding procedure destined exclusively for the participation of small and medium enterprises in the contracting items whose value is up to BRL 80,000.00;
2. may, in relation to public bidding procedure for the acquisition of works and services, require bidders to subcontract small and medium enterprises;
3. must establish, in tenders for acquiring goods that can be divided in batches, a quota of up to 25% (twenty-five percent) of the object for the contracting of small and medium enterprises.