Draft bill 58.

Summary.

The draft bill would add Article 262-A to the Consolidated Text of Law 22 of 2006. The Directorate General of Public Procurement (Dirección General de Contrataciones Públicas) would publish information identifying all current public concessions and describing their performance in the «PanamáenConcesiones» system as open data. Disclosure would follow the international transparency and disclosure standards adopted by the Republic of Panama (República de Panamá). The specified minimum information would apply to every concession granted by an institution.

To identify each concession, the published data would include its purpose, location and value, the contracting entity, and the concessionaire. Where the concessionaire is a legal entity, its identification details in the Public Registry would also appear. The information would cover the concession’s start date, term and possible extension, and would identify and provide access to the concession contract and its amendments. It would also state the contractor selection method and the reasons for selecting that contractor. These details would make the concession’s terms and the documents recording them available through the system.

For its economic activity, the system would show the monthly and annual gross revenue generated directly by the concession. It would include monthly and annual payments received directly by the institution or the public treasury from the concession or concessionaire, whether as profits, dividends or otherwise. Government support would also be disclosed, including subsidies, movable or immovable property, and tax exemptions, together with the reasons for that support. The published information would further include rates, the rate-setting methodology, and the mechanisms for reviewing and regulating rates.

Performance information would cover the number of formal jobs generated directly by the concession. It would include, at a minimum, the number of users who accessed or benefited from the concession service. Contractual penalties imposed on the concessionaire and the reasons for them would also be published, whether the penalties are final or under investigation. The institutions responsible for each concession and those responsible for registering it would have to send these data to the Directorate General of Public Procurement in the form and within the time limits that it establishes by regulation.

From the proposed law’s entry into force, the Directorate General of Public Procurement would have two calendar years to develop the PanamaenConcesiones portal and regulate its use. Article 3 restates the addition of Article 262-A to the Consolidated Text of Law 22 of June 27, 2006. Article 4 provides that the law would take effect on the day following its promulgation. The proposal concerns the Directorate General of Public Procurement, institutions granting or registering concessions, concessionaires, users of concession services, and economic sectors operating through public concessions.