More Sub Divided Public Procurements

The Ministry of Government of Guatemala has awarded $5.3 million in contracts for road signs, via 68 separated purchasing acts. 

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

This practice meant that in almost every event there was just one bidder, and that contracts could be awarded in just three weeks, avoiding the greater transparency and control present in a public tender.

"This subdivision is in addition to those made recently by the Department of Administrative and Security Affairs of the Presidency (SAAS) and the Ministry of Health" reports prensalibre.com.

Even President Otto Perez Molina acknowledged the existence of subdivisions in the waste collection contract at Roosevelt Hospital.

Referring to the case of road signs, Walter Figueroa, from the Central American Institute for Fiscal Studies, said that "having chosen to do 68 quotes instead of one bidding event was a mechanism to split the purchase and evade the law on Procurements and Contracting".

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