The popular and solidarity economy as a priority subject of public procurement in Ecuador

Abstract

For the first time in Ecuador, a Constitution of the Republic (2008) guarantees the full right of participation of the actors of the Popular and Solidarity Economy in public purchases of the State, an event that had never happened before in previous constitutions. Although no economic sector was prevented from participating in the public market, cooperatives and associations were limited for the simple reason that their products and services were insufficient and of low quality for the requirements of State institutions; In addition, large companies, so to speak, had for the most part covered the needs of public entities for goods and services. Now, this kind of discrimination changed as a result of the inclusion of the popular and solidarity sector in the new Constitution of 2008, with which, the sector began to take great importance within the public agenda, considering its contribution to the dynamism, social and economic value to the country. That said, the objective of this work is to publicize the legal framework that made possible the immersion of popular and solidarity organizations in the public market, as well as economic participation in public procurement, through an inclusive dynamic catalog. As for the result, we can state that, although there are rules that give them preference in the public market, the amount of economic participation in contracting is negligible compared to private enterprise. To reach this conclusion, we proceeded to carry out a bibliographic review (deductive method), and a descriptive statistical data analysis (analytical method) of public procurement from 2020 to 2022.