Public contracts signed in Portugal under special procurement rules reached 1,451 million euros between June 2021 and late 2025, an independent parliamentary commission reported.
The total value reflects accumulated spending from the start of the Special Public Procurement Measures in June 2021 through the end of the second half of 2025. The data comes from the latest semestral report by the Independent Commission for the Monitoring and Supervision of Special Public Procurement Measures, released by the Assembleia da República.
The commission is an independent administrative body operating within parliament to monitor and oversee procedures conducted under these special contracting rules. According to the report, contracting entities registered a total of 4,321 procedures with the Institute of Public Markets, Real Estate and Construction, representing a total base price of 1,451,110,362.66 euros.
European fund allocation
The majority of the procedures registered with the institute focused on projects funded or co-funded by European funds. These European fund projects totaled 2,656 procedures with a combined base price of 420,584,088.26 euros.
In relative terms, projects tied to European funding accounted for 61.5% of all special procurement procedures since the rules took effect. They represented 29% of the total base price.
Procurement method breakdown
The report highlighted a strong reliance on simplified prior consultations. Contracting authorities launched 2,027 procedures under this mechanism, totaling 411,375,685.47 euros in base price. Simplified prior consultations accounted for 46.9% of all special procurement procedures and 28.4% of the total base price.
Simplified direct awards made up 1,948 registered procedures, representing 45.1% of the total number of procedures. However, the spending under simplified direct awards totaled 6,070,795.92 euros, which equaled only 0.4% of the total base price.
Contracting entities also reported 143 simplified public tenders to the institute, amounting to 220,645,854.61 euros in base price. Simplified public tenders represented 3.3% of special procurement procedures and 15.2% of the overall base price.
Design and construction projects
Procedures under the special design-build regime were small in number but accounted for the largest share of overall funding. Authorities launched 98 design-build procedures, making up 2.3% of the total procedure count.
Despite the low numerical volume, these design-build projects involved a base price of 681,310,614.51 euros. That figure represented 47% of the total base price of all procedures launched under the special procurement regime.
