While state officials are happy to delegate their responsibilities to the UN Office for Project Services, the Comptroller of Guatemala has declared that its services are "detrimental to the interests of the state".
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
EDITORIAL
The arrival in Central America of the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS) was hailed by many as a factor that would allow the execution of public works which are very difficult or impossible for state institutions in the region to run, for various reasons ranging from lack of qualified personnel to simple negligence.
Applause broke out -including from us- at the mere thought of long-awaited road projects, that much needed bridge, or essential hospitals which would finally be materialize with the supposed efficiency of the UNOPS.
Apart from the specific ability of UNOPS staff to implement projects, what attracts the interest of Central American officials the most is that their actions fall outside the scope of supervision of national authorities. Supposedly, UNOPS will apply its own standards of project supervision, contract services and money management, for which reason it is not necessary for national Comptroller institutions to intrude.
It should be remembered that UNOPS charges for its services amounts of money usually equivalent to 4% of the total amount of each project.
In Costa Rica, a country where public infrastructure, especially roads, have a backlog of more than 30 years, UNOPS is already running projects even through contracts endorsed by the Comptroller General of the Republic. And others allegedly responsible for public infrastructure in the country, such as the infrastructure manager of the Social Security Department, Gabriela Murillo, are assessing delegating their responsibilities to UNOPS: "We are evaluating an option with the people from the UN to see if it is possible to shorten times for tenders," said the manager Gabriela Murillo. "It's an issue that we are just testing out to see if they can give us some alternative advantageous results for the Department, in particular options for lowering timeframes.They have a much more streamlined mechanism for hiring. "
In El Salvador, Roberto Rubio, Head of Fundación Nacional para el Desarrollo (FUNDE) suggests that "....the tenders required to resume works in the dam El Chaparral, in San Miguel, or the expansion of the international airport Monseñor Oscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdaméz could be done through the UNOPS, since it will guarantee the transparence of the process." And as warranty for the transparency, the director states that UNOPS is not going to "...burn its prestige."
On the other side, the General Comptroller in Guatemala rejects the eventual award of a project to UNOPS, pointing out problems in the contracts and stating they are "detrimental for the financial interests of the State, since they compromise expenses for management of works that are supposed to be done by executionary organs, increasing in a significant way the cost of the project, affecting also the principles of probity".
Unfortunately an interview apppointed for this week between CentralAmericaData.COM and the director of UNOPS in Costa Rica was canceled, so we couldnt ask the question: Who controls the execution of UNOPS, the quality of the services it provides, and the transparency of its contracting processes?
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The controversy generated by the UNOPS's decision to prevent access to files on the road works for which it is responsible has led the government to refrain from granting new projects in the future.
Possibly as a result of the refusal of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) to make public the project files and the subsequent cancellation of contracts by the Comptroller General, the Ministry of Public Works has decided not to continue with the assistance of the international organization in future projects.
"After two years the results are not the expected and, in fact, delays in the projects correspond to the typical obstructions and slow management that we are used to with public entities."
EDITORIAL
The actions of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) never cease to amaze. Its representatives in the country not only set out an impossible series of obstacles when the Comptroller General of the Republic requested to review the file on the contract for the new bridge over the Virilla River, on route 32, but now, a week after the request was made, UNOPS is ignoring the Comptroller's order.The entity had established a period of 24 hours for the delivery of the information.
Institutions such as the UNOPS, which supposedly come here to do what the locals can not, should be paid per piece of work for they finish, and not allowed to justify their failures with the same old excuses.
The country that once had the best institutions in Central America is now hiring an agency of the UN created to solve problems in countries lacking those institutions.
EDITORIAL
With full confidence, senior officials responsible for public infrastructure projects have justified the award of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), indicating that through this measure they will be able to sidestep the control exercised by the Comptroller General of the Republic over the award and performance of government contracts.
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3459Government Procurement Opportunities in the region
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