With the approval of the Decree with the rank, value and force of the Organic Law of Public Goods (LOBP, 2012), some contracts entered into by public entities, referring to their assets, are regulated, including leasing.
The LOBP creates a Public Goods System made up of the set of principles, rules, bodies, entities and processes that allow to regulate, in an integral and coherent way, the acquisition, use, administration, maintenance, registration, supervision and disposition of public goods.
It is made up of the Superintendency of Public Goods, as the governing body; the highest hierarchies of the public bodies and entities (Republic, states, districts, municipalities, representatives of the entities) to which the Law refers; the Public Assets Administration and Custody Units of public bodies and entities, as patrimonial managers.
The LOBP creates a body called the Superintendency of Public Goods, conceived as a decentralized service of the ministry with competence in matters of public finances; it is in charge of a Superintendent of Public Goods, who is freely appointed and removed by the President of the Republic.
Continuing with the teachings that the teacher Eloy Lares Martínez contributed in the previous article on contracts that public entities celebrate, if they are not those for a public service or public activity, the provisions of common law must be taken.
In fact, the LOBP states that public bodies and entities, except for special provisions, can lease public assets that they have attached, assigned or owned.
Public entities are ordered to comply with rules on property appraisals and registration.
It is necessary to clarify that the regulations of the Superintendency are not hierarchical for the municipality, since it enjoys autonomy, which comes from the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and is developed by the Organic Law of Municipal Public Power, corresponding to the mayor be the highest hierarch of the local executive branch, being able to enter into contracts, as well as represent the entity together with the Municipal Attorney General.
This is one of the cases where the Republic dictates the regulatory regime and they must adjust to its normative provisions, as in the case of telecommunications, for example.
Now, when it is a question that public entities must enter into the lease as lessee, the LOBP provides that it be done by reasoned act, provided that the circumstances so justify it.
This is given by reason of budgetary regulations, for that of the management of public resources, since they are always employed by others, as has been commented when financial issues such as comptroller, administration, planning, budget and finance have been developed. municipal.
It remains under discussion if the rules on housing leases issued on the occasion of the so-called Enabling Law of 2010 are applicable to public entities; In this regard, there is no provision whatsoever that excludes them, given the fact that it could be the case that they were carried out, even when public policy does not work in that sense.
As has been indicated, if it is not for a public purpose, the provisions that govern the matter apply, so - in the case of non-residential uses - it will be done in accordance with the provisions of the Decree with rank, value and force of Urban Real Estate Leasing Law (2000), the Venezuelan Civil Code (CCV, 1982).
As an additional point, the occasion on the LOBP's provisions on bailouts should not be overlooked, which, although it is not the same as a lease, due to its onerousness and gratuity in the former, is only allowed when the borrower is a public entity and for the development of a public interest program, as well as its early termination, without prejudice to the incorporation of assets to which the Law contracts, leaving the other aspects to the CCV.
