Versión en ingles: Meco wins tender in spite of making worst bid

Actualizado 2017/03/22 11:37:08

Redacción / @PanamaAmerica

Costa Rican building company Meco keeps winning multimillion contracts under the administration of Juan Carlos Varela.

The latest in a series concerns the road works for the enlargement and reconditioning of the pan American highway between the Bridge of the Americas and Arraijan, worth $335 million: this, in spite of making the most expensive offer of all bidders.

Yesterday, one of the other bidders made an initial complaint. In another potential conflict, it transpired that one of the members of the evaluating commission had worked at Meco in the past.

Meco received the lowest evaluation for its economic proposal, with 33.7 points compared to 42 points for the competing consortium CSCEC-Conalvias, whose $269.7 million bid compared favorably to Meco’s $335.5 million. Astaldi, another bidder, received 35.1 points for its offer of $322.6 million, according to figures by the public works ministry (MOP).

Regardless, Meco managed to outdo the competition in the more subjective part of the evaluation, which considers factors such as previous experience, according to sources involved in the tender. In the overall evaluation, Meco received 87.53 points, a mere not 0.8 points ahead of CSCES-Conalvias, whose offer was $75m cheaper.

“How is it possible that the firm with the highest bid ends up beating the competition through and arbitrary technical evaluation that helps it leapfrog its nearest competitor by a mere not 0.8 points?" wondered the executive of one of the competing firms who wished to remain anonymous to avoid reprisals against his firm. “With $75 million you could have built three state-of- the-art schools or two regional hospitals”, he lamented.

Suscríbete al newsletter #AlDíaConPanamáAmérica

Las noticias que importan directo a tu inbox

The evaluating commission that awarded Meco 53 points for the technical merits of its bid could yet come under scrutiny. Among its members figure Alexandra Juliao, Erick Portugal and engineer Francia Cedeño. According to a professional online site, the latter worked at Meco as a geologist in the past, which represents a potential conflict of interest. Meco is current expecting the official award of the tender.