Foreign participation in federal tenders:

a quantitative approach using the Procurement Panel

Abstract

The tender is the Public Administration's administrative process and other designated persons by law to select the best proposal, through objective and impersonal criteria, for services contract execution and goods purchase. In times of globalization, it is common for companies seeking to expand their business by participating in tenders. The Brazilian legislation allows the participation of foreign suppliers in bids held in the country. This article's objective is to discuss, through a quantitative approach, the weight of foreign suppliers' participation in the context of federal biddings between 2011 and 2018. To this end, a literature review was conducted, namely on public procurement and international tenders. Besides, an extensive data search was conducted through the Federal Government Procurement Panel. The results showed that between 2011 and 2018, more than R$422.6 billion was approved in public procurement processes, and of this total, about R$28.9 billion was approved to foreign suppliers. The Ministry of Health accounted for approximately 88.67% of the total of these homologations. The invitation, sealed competitive bidding, and international sealed competitive bidding methods accounted for 0.83% of the amounts ratified to foreign suppliers. Not required and waived bidding, and reverse auction method accounted for  99.17% of the amounts ratified to foreign suppliers. Based on the discussion of the results and the limitations found, some directions for further studies are suggested and some measures to increase public resources expenditures' effectiveness and efficiency.