CADE launched the CADE OECD Notebook on 21st of October. The publication presents the history of cooperation between Brazil and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, mainly concerning the performance of the autarchy as an associate member of the entity's Competition Committee.
Cooperation between the country and the OECD has been taking place since the early 1990s and has become more substantive and closer over the years. In 2007, Brazil was designated as a key partner of the organization, in a movement that strengthened OECD cooperation also with China, India and South Africa.
In this context, the country, through CADE, has actively participated in the OECD Competition Committee from 1997 to 2019, the year in which it was accepted as an associate member of the group: - "Regarding CADE and the Brazilian Competition Defense System, Brazil's membership as an associate member of the OECD Competition Committee represents an important international 'seal of quality' for public competition policies adopted in Brazil and consolidates CADE's position among the leading antitrust authorities in the world", states the document.
At the beginning of Wednesday's trial session, CADE's president, Alexandre Barreto, highlighted the importance of membership for the country: - "The new status achieved by Brazil with the OECD Competition Committee represents an important step not only from a competitive perspective. More broadly, the initiative corroborated Brazil's role as a key OECD partner, with the potential to contribute effectively to the organization's work, and will allow for closer cooperation ties," he said.
The OECD is structured in several directories, subdivided into committees. The Competition Committee, of which CADE has been a member since 2019, aims to protect and promote competition as a guiding principle of modern economies, based on the knowledge that market competition drives growth and employment, and makes economies more flexible and innovative.
Over the past 15 years, the OECD has prepared three reports on competition policy in Brazil as part of a peer-review process. The first was held in 2005 and the last, published in March 2019, was part of Brazil's accession process as an associate member of the Competition Committee.
It has been two decades of close collaboration with the OECD in competition matters. During this period, CADE acted actively on the committee, as a participating member, presenting written contributions to support discussions and monitoring the group's meetings every six months. In addition, Brazil has adhered to all the legal competition instruments required for an associate member and has demonstrated the ability to implement them.
Within the scope of cooperation between the country and the organization, CADE currently carries out the project on the competitive review of the public procurement regime in Brazil. The agency's action in partnership with the OECD began in July 2019 and is in line with the Brazilian government's strategy of strengthening cooperation ties with the organization.
The project aims to assess the regulatory framework on public administration bids and contracts as well as propose suggestions that will enable the adaptation of Brazilian laws and practices to the OECD recommendations regarding the fight against cartels in public purchases.
The project consists of several stages. Firstly, information about the public procurement regime in Brazil is collected through questionnaires and interviews. In the next two stages, workshops will be held on effective bidding planning and fraud detection in these processes and also on actions to restore damage resulting from anti-competitive practices.
Finally, a training manual will be created for those responsible for public procurement and a report evaluating Brazilian public procurement legislation with recommendations for actions to combat the manipulation of proposals and improve competitive results in bidding processes.
