Paraguay Opens Two-Stage Public Innovation Tenders Under New Procurement Rule

Paraguay's National Directorate of Public Procurement (DNCP) has brought into force a special process for public procurement of innovation, creating separate routes for public agencies to fund the development of solutions and to buy solutions already developed and validated. The authority announced Resolution 3033 on 27 October 2026 and said the measure had taken effect a day earlier.

The first route, Licitación para Desarrollo de Solución Innovadora, is intended for research, development and testing when a needed product or service is not yet available or sufficiently developed in the market. The second, Licitación para Compra de Solución Innovadora, is for acquiring a solution that has reached a sufficient stage of development or validation. These are distinct procurement stages; the announcement does not itself identify any newly awarded contract, payment or beneficiary.

The DNCP says the framework rests on Law 7021/2022 on public procurement, its implementing Decree 2264/2024 and Finance Ministry Resolution 518/2026. The regulator's dedicated public innovation-procurement page also identifies the National Electricity Administration (ANDE) and the Paraguayan Sanitary Services Company (ESSAP) as initial pilot institutions, with support from the Inter-American Development Bank. The initiative predates this October rule: the DNCP dates the pilot effort to 2023.

Two Paraguay-based news organizations, El Nacional on 28 October and La Tribuna on 29 October, separately described the two-stage structure and the ANDE and ESSAP pilots. Their reports corroborate the public announcement's existence and stated scope, but they do not independently establish that the pilots have delivered completed services, value for money or successful contracts.

The accountability test is in implementation. Public procurement of research can involve uncertain technical outcomes, and a later purchase may depend on how a solution's performance is validated. The records examined for this report establish the announced legal framework but do not establish specific award values, selection criteria in a signed tender, evaluation results, contract modifications, final payments or remedies for unsuccessful bidders. Those details require the underlying resolution, individual tender notices and subsequent award and delivery records.

TFNOS will distinguish development-stage funding from later acquisition expenditure when such records become available. The October announcement should not be treated as evidence of procurement misconduct, nor as proof that public benefits have already been delivered. Its significance is that it creates an identifiable regulatory route whose transparency and results can now be tested against future published procurement records.

Reporting beats: procurement and public financial controls; government policy and administrative accountability; public contract transparency. Primary section: POLICY.