Spanish
The lawyer specializing in criminal procedural law, Francisco Álvarez, strongly criticized the inclusion of criminal classifications in the new Public Procurement and Contracting Law, which was passed into law this week by the Chamber of Deputies, as well as the interpretative nature of said penalization, in the cases of public tenders.
"Typical behaviors that are not in criminal laws tend to be difficult to enforce and interpret, because they depend on a different context," Álvarez considered when participating in the panel "Public Procurement as a Driver of the Economy," organized by the newly created Association of Contractors and Suppliers (ACS).
He explained that whoever in the future heads the General Directorate of Purchases and Contracting will have the key to interpreting as they understand what are merely disciplinary and administrative sanctions and from there criminal types will be deduced that, if approved, the Public Ministry would be almost obliged to pursue, always from the perspective of administrative interpretation applied to criminal law, and under the fearsome, from a criminal point of view, regulatory reserve.
“I have that very strong criticism of the penal part of the bill, because I think it is unnecessary, the penal laws are the ones that should govern typical behaviors,” Álvarez pointed out, and considered that the Procurement Law without administrative and disciplinary sanctions, without contradicting the Penal Code.
However, the director of the General Directorate of Public Procurement of the Dominican Republic, Carlos Pimentel Florenzán, highlighted the consensus with all sectors for the modifications to this Law, and indicated that it will come into effect in January 2026.
