In brief

On 1 January 2024, the provisions of the new Public Contracts Code on the digitization of public procurement laid down in Article 22 ‘National Digital Procurement Ecosystem (e-procurement)‘ will come into force. The aim is to ensure maximum transparency, speed and a high level of simplification in the award and management of these contracts, with the aim of increasing the efficiency of the system and ensuring greater effectiveness of administrative action.

Key takeaways

The main innovation as of 1 January 2024 concerns the management of public tenders, for which the use of ‘certified’ digital platforms becomes mandatory, not only for the awarding phase, but also for all the other phases of the contract lifecycle, and in particular execution. With regard to the economic operators participating in tenders, thanks to the interoperability of all the components of the system, the virtual file of the economic operator (Fascicolo virtuale dell’operatore economico) will be available, which is necessary for verifying the possession of the requirements for participating in public tenders and the absence of causes for exclusion, and which will be periodically updated by the certifying bodies.

In this new set-up, ANAC plays a key role as the exclusive owner of the National Public Contracts Database, which makes available, by means of interoperability, the services and information necessary to carry out the stages of the entire life cycle of public contracts. The same database also integrates with the single transparency platform established at ANAC.