Public purchases as a way to implement public policies

Abstract

The present work addresses the possibility of public purchases being used as an instrument for the implementation of public policies. The Public Administration needs, as a rule, to carry out a bidding process in order to acquire goods, services or contract engineering works. This purchasing power allows the Public Administration to act actively at the regional or local level, to implement public policies. Public policy is the remedy that will act on the public problem, allowing the elimination or mitigation of a diagnosed problem. Currently in Brazil there is a range of public policies that were formulated to be applied in public purchases, which need to be implemented, such as the differentiated treatment of micro and small companies. This differentiated treatment allows these companies to benefit from public procurement processes. It is a public policy at the constitutional level. To understand the topic, the deductive method was used, in addition to exploratory and descriptive research, with the purpose of bringing a broad understanding of the topic under discussion. In the course of this study, it was possible to verify that it is possible to implement public policies through public purchases, however, it is essential that the actors involved are aligned with the proposed public policies, especially street-level bureaucrats.