Contracts are awarded to Meco; complaints are overlooked
The Minister of Public Works, Ramón Arosemena, yesterday awarded the contract for the expansion of the highway between bridge of the Americas and Arraiján to the Loma Cova consortium led by Costa Rican construction company Meco S.A., despite being the most expensive option for the government, and ignored the complaints of competitors made only 24 hours earlier.
- Actualizado: 24/3/2017 - 11:34 am
The Minister of Public Works, Ramón Arosemena, yesterday awarded the contract for the expansion of the highway between bridge of the Americas and Arraiján to the Loma Cova consortium led by Costa Rican construction company Meco S.A., despite being the most expensive option for the government, and ignored the complaints of competitors made only 24 hours earlier.
The consortium integrated by Meco submitted the most economically advantageous tender, $335.5 million, but the Evaluation Committee gave them the necessary technical and subjective score so that they could exceed the CSCEC Consortium, composed of Conalvías and TPAA, by just 0.8 points.
In contrast, the economic tender by CSCEC was 75 million below the amount proposed by Meco and their accidental partner.
Before the Panama Compra website posted the award of the contract yesterday, Minister Arosemena defended in a press conference the score that the Loma Cova Consortium had received and confirmed that one of the three members of the Evaluation Committee, France Cedeño, had worked as an engineer at Meco.
For Arosemena, this fact does not represent a conflict of interest, arguing that Cedeño was a professional person, and that she had already been part of other evaluation committees in which Meco had participated.
"There is no conflict of interest within this Committee, what´s more, what company do you work at?... the fact that you work at Panama America does not prevent you from working somewhere else", replied Arosemena to a journalist of this means of communication when being asked about the participation of Cedeño in the Evaluation Committee.
He added that engineer Cedeño "is a professional, who had previously worked in the Ministry, went to the private-sector company and then returned to the MOP… is a serious person and we trust in her and in her work".
Surprise
The award took CSCEC, Astaldi-MCM and FCC Construcción consortia by surprise, since their complaints before the Directorate of Public Procurement were not analyzed to establish whether they could be admitted. Simply, the complaints remained at the reception.
The CSCEC´s complaint required the evaluation report which recommended the tender submitted by Meco consortium to be declared null and void, since it should have not been weighted due to the alleged breach of the mandatory minimum requirements and the technical requirements set out in the statement of objections.
"Even without considering disqualification, CSCEC affirms that the Loma Cova Consortium was awarded more points than they should according to the statement of objections. In contrast, the CSCEC Consortium were awarded fewer points than what they were entitled to", says the complaint.
Even CSCEC argues that the POA document behind the legal representation of Mr. Javier Parra of the Loma Cova Consortium was not properly awarded so that he could participate in the bidding process. This would be yet another of the elements for which the disqualification of the group formed by Meco is being requested.
Meanwhile, Astaldi MCM argued that in the Commission's report some actions had been taken that were openly contrary to the proper bidding process and the statement of objections of the public act.
FCC Construcción had also submitted their complaint, but for Minister Arosemena, none of this was relevant, while there is more than $75 million of difference with respect to the second option which, based on technical assessments, was outdone for 0.8 points by Costa Rican Meco.
Investigation
Then MOP awarded this contract regardless of the complaints filed. Ramsés Paulette, builder and member of Apede, said that the evident urgency for awarding the company in question making the most expensive offer without waiting for complaints to be resolved should be investigated. This makes the transparency of the process to be seriously affected since this tender has been granted, at full throttle, with three complaints being overlooked.
"This leaves a bitter aftertaste in the citizenship and thus Panama is very badly seen in terms of legal stability, which discourages foreign investment", said Paulette.
The builder makes a call of attention to the Comptroller General, Federico Humbert, so that he goes ahead and audit the process that was followed merely aimed to making the Loma Cova Consortium be the bidding winner before issuing an endorsement.
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