Education Procurement in Portugal
Numbers
More informationNumber of schools K-12 | Number of teachers K-12 | Number of students K-12 | Number of computers per student K-12 |
5.495 (2017/2018) | 130.765 (2017/2018) | 1.388.754 (2017/2018) | 0,2 (2017/2018) or 4,7 students per computer |
Source:
www.dgeec.mec.pt/np4/96
Legislation of Education
More informationThe Education Act of 1986 (Law no. 46/86, further amended by Law no. 115/97, Law no. 49/2005 and Law no. 85/2009) establishes the general regulation framework of the Portuguese Education System (see consolidated version of Education Act in the Portuguese Laws Portal - Diário da República Eletrónico:
https://dre.pt/web/guest/legislacao-consolidada/-/lc/70328402/201707281529/70486656/diploma/indice)
Programmes, strategies etc. related to education, digital education
In 2017, the Portuguese Government launched the “National Initiative for Digital Skills e.2030, Portugal INCoDe.2030”, to promote the digital skills:
https://www.incode2030.gov.pt/en/incode2030
Organisations
More informationEducation system and the governance of it centralised in Portugal.
Organization responsible for education | Role of the organization | Website |
Ministry of Education |
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www.portugal.gov.pt /pt/gc22/area-de-governo/educacao |
Municipalities | Have been given more and more responsibility and authority over decisions on pre-primary, primary and lower secondary levels.
Municipalities can make decisions regarding the offer of extracurricular activities, providing school meals and transportation to the students, managing the infrastructure of the schools and even in hiring and dismissing of non-teaching staff. At the upper secondary level, there is no decision-making right in the hands of local or regional authorities. |
See Decree-Law no. 21/2019, which establishes the framework for the transfer of education competences from the Central Government to municipal and intermunicipal bodies: https://dre.pt/pesquisa/- /search/118748848/ details/maximized |
Other bodies involved in the governance of the education system:
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Sources: Decree-Law no.169-B/2019 - Structure of XXII Government: https://dre.pt/web/guest/pesquisa/-/search/126869983/details/normal?q=169-B Decree-Law no. 21/2019 - Transfer of competences to municipal and intermunicipal bodies: https://dre.pt/pesquisa/-/search/118748848/details/maximized OECD: Education Policy Outlook – Portugal, 2014 European Commission / EACEA National Policies Platform / Eurydice / Portugal Overview: https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-policies/eurydice/content/portugal_en |
Funding of education
More informationType of schools | Source of funds |
Schools at all levels are financed from the central state budget with some responsibility of the Ministry of Education.
Municipalities also have got a considerable role in the financing mechanism, as they cover the costs of managing educational facilities, transport and extracurricular activities. |
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Public schools | Funds are allocated directly from the state budget |
Private schools | Funds granted to those private schools that have a charter agreement are partially allocated by the Ministry of Education. |
Source: https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-policies/eurydice/content/early-childhood-and-school-education-funding-60_pt-pt OECD: Education Policy Outlook – Portugal, 2014 European Commission / EACEA National Policies Platform / Eurydice / Portugal Overview: https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-policies/eurydice/content/portugal_en |
Public expenditure on education ISCED (2011) (million EUR)
More informationYear | Primary education | Lower secondary education | Upper secondary education | Total |
2012 | 2379,7 | 1960,5 | 1758,3 | 6098,5 |
2013 | 2667,5 | 2096,6 | 1849,9 | 6614,0 |
2014 | 2650,3 | 2027,8 | 1721,9 | 6400,0 |
2015 | 2542,9 | 1956,3 | 1784,6 | 6283,8 |
2016 | 2581,9 | 2085,4 | 1854,0 | 6521,3 |
Source:Eurostat (online data codes: educ_uoe_fine01) |
Expenditure on educational institutions ISCED (2011) (Million EUR)
More informationYear | Expenditure | Primary education | Lower secondary education | Upper secondary education | Total |
2012 | Current expenditure | 2 522,0 | 1 808,2 | 1 864,0 | 6 194,2 |
Capital expenditure | 142,6 | 280,2 | 298,0 | 720,8 | |
Total | 2 664,6 | 2 088,4 | 2 162,0 | 6 915,0 | |
Share of capital expenditure (%) | 5,4 | 13,4 | 13,8 | 10,4 | |
2013 | Current expenditure | 2 801,0 | 2 129,7 | 2 169,4 | 7 100,1 |
Capital expenditure | 99,2 | 79,9 | 103,2 | 828,3 | |
Total | 2 900,2 | 2 209,6 | 2 272,7 | 7 382,5 | |
Share of capital expenditure (%) | 3,4 | 3,6 | 40,5 | 3,8 | |
2014 | Current expenditure | 2 446,9 | 1 866,3 | 1 818,2 | 6 131,4 |
Capital expenditure | 48,7 | 39,7 | 100,3 | 188,7 | |
Total | 2 495,6 | 1 906,0 | 1 918,5 | 6 320,1 | |
Share of capital expenditure (%) | 2,0 | 2,1 | 5,2 | 3,0 | |
2015
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Current expenditure | 2 334,8 | 1 785,7 | 1 751,3 | 5 871,8 |
Capital expenditure | 64,2 | 58,4 | 206,3 | 328,9 | |
Total | 2 399,0 | 1 844,0 | 1 957,6 | 6 200,6 | |
Share of capital expenditure (%) | 2,7 | 3,2 | 10,5 | 5,3 | |
2016 | Current expenditure | 2 446,5 | 1 935,2 | 1 946,6 | 6 328,3 |
Capital expenditure | 64,7 | 60,4 | 133,2 | 258,3 | |
Total | 2 511,2 | 1 995,6 | 2 079,8 | 6 586,6 | |
Share of capital expenditure (%) | 2,6 | 3,0 | 6,4 | 3,9 | |
Source: Eurostat (online data code: educ_uoe_fini01) |
Investment plan for education / ICT in education
More informationYear | Amount in (€) | Main pillars of investments | Share of pillars (%) |
202 | 6.516,8 Mio. | General budget foreseen for education |
Source: Eurostat (online data codes: educ_uoe_fine01)
Procurement Procedure
More informationMinistry of Economy: main body in the Public procurement system formulating and developing the national procurement policy.
Ministry of Finance: is also an important factor in the public procurement system, and both ministries ensure the compliance with statistical reporting of the procurement system.
eSPap: central purchasing body
- manages large framework contracts through which central government agencies are obliged to purchase standardised products (e.g. vehicles, paper goods)
- provides various services to any public body that joins the National System of Public Procurement.
Portuguese Competition Authority (PCA): ensures the compliance with competition rules in Portugal.
Court of Auditors: external oversight body which is a fully independent judicial body and is entitled to issue sanctions for any irregularities overall Portuguese administration institutions.
The internal oversight bodies are the Inspectors Generals within every ministry.
In case of ICT procurement the following institutions have the right to make decisions:
- municipalities
- directors of clusters of schools
- Regional Directorate of schools (5 Regional Directorates exist: Norte,Centro, Alentejo, Lisboa and Algarve)
Local educational institutes are authorized to launch public procurement to buy ICT solutions to the classrooms.
The Code of Public Contracts (CPC) lists five different procedures from which the public procurer can choose according to the specific needs that will contain the subject of the future public contract and to the economic value of the contract. The five different procedures on the basis of the CPC are the following:
- Direct Award of Contract: it is a simple process that allows the contracting authority to invite directly one or more entities to bid, then to negotiate with them the aspects of the contract to be signed. There are restrictions when this process can be used:
- if the object of the contract is public works, this procedure can be used in case the estimated maximum price is up to the limit of 150 000 EUR
- if the object of the contract is buying of goods and services, then it can be used in case the estimated maximum price is up to 75 000 EUR
- in case of other contracts, if the estimated maximum price is up to 100 000 EUR
- Public Tender: it is the main general procedure that involves a total competition where every economic operator interested in the bid can present a tender/proposal. This procedure requires the publication in the official journal of a tender with the specifications of the contract and of the service/product and in the Official Journal of the European Union in the case of public works if the estimated price is higher than 5 000 000 EUR, and in the case of buying goods or services if the estimated price is higher than 130 000 EUR or 200 000 EUR in the event of the promoter is a local authority.
- Limited Tender with pre-qualification: this procedure consists of two phases:
- qualification of bidders
- tender
This procedure is similar to the Public Tender with an extension of the evaluation procedure aiming to evaluate the technical and financial capacity of the potential bidders in order to select those bidders who might be the more reliable suppliers accordingly to the needs identified and type of contract to be awarded.
- Negotiation Procedure with Tender: this procedure can only be used in exceptional situations when the object of the tender is, for instance, financial services, when the technical specifications are impossible to be correctly specified in the tender or when it is not possible to properly establish the price of the services or products.
- Competitive Dialogue: it is used in cases where the contract to be awarded is highly complex and it is not possible to implement an open tender or a limited tender with pre-qualification. This procedure is for complex sectors that are in constant change, such as the ones involving high technology, where, despite the fact that the needs are known, the technical solutions are not known and the technical specifications difficult to define or even impossible to be defined solely by the public authority.
The most commonly used procedures at the municipal/local level are the Public tender and the Direct Award of Contract.
Teachers are not directly involved in the procurement decisions, but they play an important role in the recognition of the needs of the students.
- in the case of pre-primary schools and 1st cycle compulsory education schools (from year 3 to year 10), the school director/principal cooperates with the municipality in the name of the school in order to identify the needs of the students
- in case of 2nd and 3rd cycle of compulsory education institutions and upper secondary schools, the management of the schools is performed by the Ministry of Education. The director/principal of a cluster of schools is responsible for the implementation and management of the procurement process and has autonomy in the decision if the value of the product/service to be purchased is up to 4 500 EUR (+VAT). In all other cases, the decision making right belongs to the Regional Directorate of schools
- For schools that are not integrated into clusters, the director/principal is responsible for the dialogue with the services of the local representative of the Regional Directorate of schools.
Primary and secondary schools have the right to decide which educational technology will be purchased for them. There is a specified budget for the procurement of educational technology, and the main source for these purchases is provided from own financial sources.
Most important factors taken into consideration during the decision making which educational technology to purchase are:
- the price
- the time saved for teachers
- the opinion of the teachers
In Portugal, there was Pre-Commercial Procurement implemented in the area of health.
Code of Public Contracts Code (CPC), approved by the Decree-Law no.18/2008 of 29 January, amended by Law 59/2008 of 11 September, Decree-Law no.223/2009 of 11 September, Decree-Law no.278/2009 of 20 October, Law no.3/2010 of 27 April, Decree-Law no. 131/2010 of 14 December, Law 64-B/2011 of 30 December, Decree-Law no. 149/2012 of 12 July, Decree-Law no.214-G/2015 of 2 October, Decree-Law no. 111-B/2017 of 31 August, Decree-Law no.33/2018 of 15 May and, most recently, Decree-Law no.170/2019 of 4 December. The PCC transposes the EU Directives 2014/23/EU, of 26 February, 2014/24/EU of 26 February (which repeals Directive 2004/18/EC), 2014/25/EU of 26 February (which repeals Directive 2004/17/EC) and 2014/55/EU of 16 April.
https://dre.pt/web/guest/pesquisa/-/search/248178/details/normal?l=1
Source:
European Commission / EACEA National Policies Platform / Eurydice / Portugal Overview:
https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-policies/eurydice/content/portugal_en
Public procurement – Study on administrative capacity in the EU Portugal Country Profile:
https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/policy/how/improving-investment/public-procurement/study/country_profile/pt.pdf
General steps of the procedure for the Common Public Procurement for the awarding of a contract and Direct Award of Contract in Portugal