During the CDEmpauta on Government Procurement, an online debate held by the Convergência Digital website on 06/17/2020, Cristiano Heckert, Management Secretary of the Ministry of Economy, said that the federal government is carrying out advanced studies for the implementation of rules and a platform to enable the fiduciary assignment of contract credit rights based on public purchases – better known as prepayment of receivables.
This is a measure that ABES has been claiming for several years with the authorities and which was discussed again in the action plan presented to the federal government recently to minimize the effects of the pandemic on the cash flow of companies, especially small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) .
“About 70% of ABES associates are SMEs and these companies even win public tenders, but they face the harsh Brazilian reality of delays in receiving payments from public bodies. They find themselves in a dead end, as they cannot get working capital or even provide guarantees for their suppliers to finance them to sell to the government, and even have to abandon the competition they won”, explains Rodolfo Fücher, President of ABES.
Therefore, "ABES has requested that the government transform the sale to a government agency, the purchase and sale contract and the expense commitment, into a backing for commercial sale, with the possibility of issuing a "commercial paper", endorsable and liquid. Knowing that the process is advancing makes us happy, as we have seen that they are listening to the relevant demands of the business sector”, completes Francisco Camargo, President of the Association's Board of Directors.
How should the system work
The Deputy Secretary for Management, Renato Fenili, who also participated in the CDEmpauta, said that the system of fiduciary assignment of contract credit rights represents a measure to promote the economy and a disruption for the area of government procurement. “It will allow a company to take the contract signed with the public administration and cash it out in advance at a bank or fintech that offers the best credit terms. In other words, it is a loan line in which the guarantee becomes the contract with the public agency”, he clarified.
Heickert explained that the Ministry of Economy is working on two fronts to make the system viable: normative and technological. “We are building a technological platform together with Febraban and an association of fintechs, because when the company places the contract it would like to anticipate, the public administration has to validate whether, in fact, that contract exists. Lenders may offer their discount rates. We hope that this platform starts working in three months”.
Another measure being studied, which should also benefit SMEs and startups, is the advance payment of public purchases, in exchange for a discount on the amount to be paid in the business, a measure that will be announced in the future.
EN 
PT 
