The new statutes of Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações (ANACOM), as approved by Decree-Law no. 39/2015https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1351851, of 16 March, enter into force today, 1 April 2015.
As such, any references made to ICP - Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações (ICP-ANACOM) in legislation or contracts are consequently considered as being made to ANACOM, and references made in the assignments and powers of CPEC - Comissão de Planeamento de Emergência das Comunicações (Emergency Communications Planning Committee) are to treated likewise.
It is ANACOM's mission to undertake regulation of the communications sector, including electronic and postal communications, and without prejudice to its nature, provide assistance to the Government in the area of communications. Its assignments, including those which, to date, have resulted from separate legislation, are set out in article 8 of the Statutes, whereas the powers conferred upon ANACOM - of regulation, supervision, monitoring and sanctioning - are set out in article 9.
In the new Statutes, it is expressly enshrined that ANACOM is an independent administrative body, in addition to being the national regulatory authority (NRA) for communications for the purposes of the law of the European Union (EU) and national legislation.
ANACOM is organisationally, operationally and technically independent in the performance of its functions and is not subject to government direction or supervision in the exercise thereof; as such, no member of the government may make recommendations or issue orders to its management bodies or to any member of staff as regards its regulatory activity or as regards the priorities to be adopted in the execution of said activity.
ANACOM is governed by two managing bodies - a Management Board and Statutory Auditor.
The Management Board is responsible for defining and implementing ANACOM's activity and for the management of its operations and staff. The members of the Management Board are appointed with non-renewable mandates of six years. The entry into force of the new statutes does not, however, affect the ongoing mandates of Management Board members currently in office, the duration of which shall be maintained, as initially defined, but may not be renewed.
ANACOM's Statutory Auditor is responsible for overseeing the legality and propriety of ANACOM's activity and the sound management of its finances and assets. Specifically, it is incumbent upon the Statutory Auditor to evaluate the quality of ANACOM's performance indicator systems (efficiency, effectiveness and quality) and evaluate the results obtained in the light of available resources.
In preparing its Multi-Year Activities Plan, ANACOM now submits the main strategic guidelines for each three-year period to annual public consultation. Furthermore, in the first quarter of each year, ANACOM is required to submit that plan and the timetable proposed for its implementation to the competent Parliamentary Committee of Assembleia da República (Assembly of the Republic).
The new statutes of ANACOM have basis in the regime established by Law no. 67/2013 of 28 August, which approved the framework law for independent administrative entities.
