Because of flaws in the estimates of costs of the work, in Costa Rica the Comptroller's Office declared unviable the tender to build a sports center, supposedly valued at $40 million.
In July 2016, the Solis administration announced explicitly that they were preparing to tender, at the beginning of 2017, the construction of a 25,000 square meter aquatic center and a 36,000 square meter sports center in San José, for a total cost of $40 million.
The increase in domestic debt with terms of less than one year and the growing rise in interest rates are some of the threats that Costa Rica's public finances continue to face.
According to the 2017 Annual Report by the General Comptroller of the Republic, between 2016 and 2017 the percentage of domestic debt with a term of less than one year increased from 15% to 18%, the variable rate rose from 12% to 20%, and the interest rate in dollars grew from 19% to 24%.
The predictive model designed with data mining techniques used by the Ministry of Finance in Costa Rica has detected payments to third parties totalling more than $31 million.
By cross matching information from the 132 databases available to the Ministry of Finance, the Tax Intelligence Office is trying to predict which companies are more likely to evadetaxpayments, depending on their historical behavior measured through transactions, tax returns and other data. By linking together all of the information, they are identifying patterns of behavior similar to those of other companies that have evaded taxes in the past.
In the Legislative Assembly a bill is being discussed that would allow for hiring done by government entities not to require the endorsement of the Comptroller General of the Republic.
Bill 20.202 is an initiative of the General Comptroller of the Republic, which put forward a proposal with the aim of reducing the time and the bureaucracy involved in the review and subsequent endorsement of each contract.
In Costa Rica, the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic decided to cancel the contracts for two UNOPS road construction projects, after it decided to keep secret the files with the details of these contracts.
The decision by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) to hide the details of the contracts for the two road construction projects assigned to it by the National Road Council (Conavo) cost state coffers dearly.
The Costa Rican Ministry of Education used part of a $167 million trust, originally earmarked for the construction of 79 schools, to pay for sanctions imposed by the IADB because of a delay in the execution of those works.
Around $1.7 million was what the Ministry of Public Education (MEP) used to pay the sanction that the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) imposed on it for not executing the $167.5 million trust within the established timeframe, money which had been allocated for building 79 educational centers and 24 roofed sports courts.
With the changes to the contract approved by the Comptroller General, Banco de Costa Rica has become the project supervisor of the road expansion project.
"...The main change is that Banco de Costa Rica will be in charge of the Project Management Unit (UAP) and therefore will have to provide the entire administrative team needed to manage the next phases of the route.In addition, it will assume work such as the selection of contractors for different works."
"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.
After a long process, a $7 million contract to install traffic lights and points on 91 railroad crossings in the Greater Metropolitan Area has finally been awarded.
Since the tender was announced at the end of last year, the process came up against several obstacles which caused delays, such as appeals by the state railway company and participating companies.
The Comptroller confirmed the contract for the construction, under the turnkey format, of a medical center in Pérez Zeledón, San José province.
The contract between the National Institute of Insurance (INS) and the companies Consorcio Constructora Gonzalo Delgado, Consultancy and Design and Industrial Medical Electronics is for $5 million comprises "...
In Costa Rica the new convention center, still under construction, is missing out on opportunities to promote itself overseas due to a delay in the tender to hire a company to manage it.
Companies in the tourism sector state that most major events and congresses are negotiated up to two years in advance, and because the convention center does not have an management company to set rental rates for the site and other aspects, the possibilities for promoting it abroad are reduced.
The trust agreement between the government and Banco de Costa Rica for the implementation of the expansion project of the San Jose-San Ramon road, has received approval from the Comptroller General of the Republic.
The project, indispensable for the development of the northern part of the Great Metropolitan Area, has suffered from years of delay after successive setbacks with concessionaire construction companies, social protests because of the expected rise in tolls and the burdensome compensation paid by the State to these companies.
In the past five years direct contracting on the part of the State has increased by 90%, undermining fair competition between suppliers and adequate transparency in the use of public resources.
As the Comptroller General of the Republic points out, although the option to use the mechanism of direct purchase rather than holding a tender is legal, state entities should not abuse its use, as they have been doing in recent years.
For the fourth time the Comptroller has returned without having approved the contract for the construction of the new convention center, which in May was awarded to the construction company Edica for $32 million.
This time the Office of the Comptroller General of Colombia requested the Costa Rican Tourism Institute give a better justification for why they will use nearly $8 million from the $15 tax charged to tourists entering the country.
China Harbour Engineering Company will have 42 months to expand the road linking the capital San José with the port area in Limón.
From a statement issued by the Comptroller General of the Republic:
By attached letter, the CGR endorsed the Contract Agreement and Addenda 1, 2, 3 and 4 for the "Project Design, Renovation and Expansion of National Road No.
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