Ministry of Finance is established as a large “virtual store” of the State

The Ministry of Finance and Public Credit authorized the implementation of a new type of public procurement called Framework Agreementsthrough which it will be established as an inspector and supplier of State contracts, through a catalog of “standardized goods.”

The Framework Agreements were established in the State Administrative Contracting Law, approved in February 2025but they have not been implemented yet. These will allow the selection of the “contractors or suppliers with whom the State entities must contract standardized goods and services,” according to article 26, paragraph 1, of said law.

For the implementation of this type of contracting, the Treasury will enable the Electronic Catalog for Framework Agreements (CEAM) platform, a type of virtual store, where State entities will be able to generate their purchase orders for “standardized goods”, according to Ministerial Agreement 005-2026, published in Official Gazette La Gacetaon Tuesday, April 28, 2026.

“A standardized good is, for example, paper, because many institutions use it,” explained a public procurement specialist who requested anonymity. “So, what is basically done is to condense all the paper purchasing requirements that public institutions may have and say, well, they need X amount of paper,” he explained.

Once all the purchase orders for “standardized goods” have been gathered, the General Directorate of State Contracting (DGCE), of the Ministry of Finance, will select “a type of large supplier” and “execute global purchases,” according to the expert.

“The institutions are only going to indicate which product from the catalog they require and – once this large supplier is selected, which is the one that will supply all public institutions – they will wink (during the year) and supply them,” he exemplified.

From regulatory body to contracting party

With the implementation of the Framework Agreements, the DGCE – created as a regulatory body for public procurement – ​​will now exercise an executor function. “It goes from being a regulator and a judge to a party, because it becomes the contracting body,” the specialist emphasized.

This situation “gives two shirts” to the DGCE and “it is not known how a conflict situation will be handled, since the regulatory entity is now the executor,” he commented.

This double role of the Treasury in State contracting also generates – according to the expert – a series of doubts, mainly because in Nicaragua the purchasing system is “coerced”, like the rest of the State, and there is no type of supervision by the Comptroller General of the Republic (CGR).

“Here we could be faced with a modality (of purchases) that benefits suppliers that are associated with the interests of the family-State-party. That is, they are purchases that could be subject to situations of influence peddling to benefit one supplier in relation to another. And especially if the supplier were a supplier that is associated with the particular interests of the leadership in power,” the specialist noted.

According to the specialist, the Framework Agreements only apply to standardized purchases. For this reason, public institutions will continue to use other forms of contracting such as bidding, which can be public or selective; simplified contracting, minor contracting or competitions.

He clarified that this contracting system has already been approved in other countries, which has benefits such as saving time and resources. But, he warned that, if applied discretionally “it could simply be one more instrument to commit irregularities in the purchasing system and generate abuse of public resources.”

Only large suppliers will be able to compete

The specialist also assessed that this type of contracting can generate “a discriminatory effect” towards some suppliers, since, by generating global purchases of standardized goods, only large suppliers could compete.

“There are competitors who will not be able to enter because we are talking about substantial quantities of these standardized goods that are required. So, if they are not a large supplier in this market, which is a market for small purchases… they will hardly be able to supply the quantities that are required,” he stressed.

A medium-sized supplier “could probably compete in a smaller purchasing procedure with an institution, but when we talk about supplying large quantities, only the big ones are going to go here,” said the specialist.

By restricting the State purchasing market to large suppliers, “many irregularities can be committed and, of course, there can be quite unfair competition,” commented the specialist. “It’s like a barrier to entry that tells you if you’re a great supplier, if you can participate. If not, you can’t even enter this competition.”