In a "Solomonic" decision, the Ministry of Finance has decided to settle the dispute between CompraRed and Merlink, ordering the development of a new platform, giving the moribund state telecom company RACSA something to do.
EDITORIAL
With the introduction of the yet to be developed Integrated Public Procurement System (SICOP by its initials in Spanish), an end could be given to the bitter struggle between different groups of state officials and private providers over "their" respective public procurement systems.
The government has announced the implementation of a control system for medicine purchases which would provide information on prices and suppliers of medicines purchased by the State.
From a press release issued by the Ministry of Health:
Interactive platform "open medicines" launched by public sector.
Tegucigalpa. In order to decrease manipulation of bids and irregularities in the procurement of medicines that are awarded by public sector competitive tenders, today sees the launch of the interactive platform "open medicines".
A law has been amended to give discretion to the Council of Secretaries of State to authorize the purchase of second hand machinery and equipment parts.
With the adopted reform the Executive Branch is authorized to purchase used equipment and machinery for the purpose of promoting efficiency and savings in public procurements. Although the ban on the state buying used goods holds, exceptions have been made in cases to be determined by the Council of Secretaries of State .
The American Chamber of Commerce has criticized the award of business to a small group of companies selected by the Ministry of Agriculture.
Companies who were not invited to participate in the committee for the procurement of maize seed implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) doubt the legal framework of the panel as it differs from the normal purchasing process using format of a tender.
Countries such as Costa Rica, El Salvador and Panama may use purchasing subsystems for projects financed by the bank.
From a press release issued by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB):
Argentina, Bolivia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Jamaica, Panama, Paraguay and Peru may use purchasing subsystems for Bank-financed projects.
The approval is part of the efforts of countries to improve their management systems for procurements, a market which represents about $800 billion in the region. Several indicators show the benefits of these efforts in recent years, for example, electronic access to the market for government procurements, which allows 70% of contracts to be accessible via the Internet.
Now it will be possible to know who will technically and legally evaluate the conditions for purchasing processes, and those who make up the awarding body of the events.
From a press release by the Ministry of Finance in Guatemala:
The Ministry of Finance will implement, from Monday September 30, the first phase of modifications to the web portal "Sistema de Información de Contrataciones y Adquisiciones del Estado -GUATECOMPRAS (www.guatecompras.gt) -" which increases transparency and makes information available on purchases and acquisitions by government and state run entities.
The Ministry of Finance intends to give the public more and better access to information provided by the website Guatecompras.
From a press release published by Diario de Centro América:
In order to make purchasing and tendering processes more transparent, and so that the information for audit is fully accessible to the public, from June the Ministry of Public Finance (Minfin) will make changes to the website Guatecompras.
From January 2014, the Government of Costa Rica will use Merlink as its sole purchasing platform.
According to Alicia Avendaño, secretary to the Digital Government, the transition to a single electronic procurement system is in the phase of adjustment, and should be ready in July.
Elfinancierocr.com reports that "migration to Merlink is tied to a bill to strengthen the leadership of the Ministry of Finance in this regard.
The Government of Guatemala is studying the direct purchase of 500,000 passport booklets after the dismissal of a second tender process which sought to acquire the booklets.
Taking part in the contest were two bidders, which contravenes the Government Procurement Act, since the process was conducted in the form of "expression of interest", which is supposed to have only one participant.
Purchases are awarded on a competitive basis only 18% of the time. This was the previous government’s usual practice, and it seems to be same under the administration of Perez Molina.
According to Marvin Flores, expert from transparency watchdog Acción Ciudadana (AC in Spanish), this practice lends itself to anomalous acts in government, by public officials.