After declaring the first tender void, a new purchase process has been announced for a pilot plan to use electronic bracelets for prisoners.
The process was declared void because the financial offer from the only company that participated in the tender exceeded the amount of $1.5 million which had been budgeted by the Ministry of Justice and Peace for this purchase.
Of the fourteen companies that showed interest in taking part, only nine presented and explained their proposals to the Executive Unit of Loan with the Inter-American Development Bank.
The names of the participating companies were not disclosed and presentations were held behind closed doors, with the justification that "... the session should be closed to the public in order to avoid objections from interested companies." Representatives from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) noted that they will only announce the names of the six companies that are selected.
The government has announced that in 2015 it will launch a public tender to purchase security bracelets for $2 million.
From a statement from the Ministry of Public Security in Panama:
The Government will be investing approximately $2 million in bracelets with Global Positioning Systems (GPS), to monitor inmates in prisons, who have special exit permits and those who are being investigated for domestic violence.
A plan is being prepared to implement a pilot project for electronic ankle tags in the prison system before the end of the year.
By the end of 2014, the Guatemalan government will launch a pilot project to implement electronic tags into the prison system, confirmed the chief of Interior, Mauricio López Bonilla.
"... There is a whole map for the developed of this detention methodology, which involves placing electronic ankle bracelets on inmates which are controlled from a monitoring center and in this way relieve pressure on prisons ...."
Ratification has been made for a loan granted by the BCIE for the construction and expansion of prisons and the purchase of 2000 electronic tagging devices.
The loan from Banco Centroamericano de Integración Económica (BCIE) was signed on April 24 by the Ministry of Justice and Security.
According to the security chief, Ricardo Perdomo, "the resources will be used for the construction and expansion of prisons, prison farms and buying tagging devices".