Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (Costa Rican Social Security Fund ) is bidding for the supply of digital transportable X-ray equipment on a delivery-on-demand basis.
Costa Rican Government Purchase 2021LN-000001-3110:
"Comprises the provision of the medical equipment Digital Transportable X-Ray, accessories, complementary medical equipment, installation, operation tests and trainings.
Costa Rican businessmen support efforts to avoid changes to the bill being discussed in the Legislative Assembly, which originally seeks to stop abuses in hiring directly by public entities.
For the business sector in Costa Rica, the large number of direct contracts between state institutions implies a number of defects and abuses in the use of public funds.
The employers' guild is of the opinion that in direct contracting there is no guarantee that the best use is actually being made of public funds, and there are indications of a lack of transparency in contracts. Some of them have even been declared confidential.
President Solís has ordered ministers to suspend all tender processes for vehicles, equipment and supplies, rental of buildings and consultancies that have not yet started.
In the case of contract processes that are already underway, it will be up to head of each Ministry to decide whether to suspend them or consider them indispensable for the operation of the Ministry.
In 2016 the number of companies that sold goods and services to government institutions grew almost three times compared to 2015.
From the report "V Status Report on the SME Situation in 2016":
The V Status Report on the SME Situation in 2016 in Costa Rica indicates that sales to the state by companies that are registered in the Costa Rican Business Information System (SIEC), increased their share by 11.9%; which implies that the number of companies that sell to the state increased by 285 compared to 2015.
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.
The private sector has denounced the "clear abuse on the part of the state by forcing all agencies and public companies to make contracts with each other."
From a statement issued by the Costa Rican Union of Chambers and Associations in the Private Business Sector (UCCAEP):
October, 2016.The Costa Rican Union of Chambers and Associations in the Private Business Sector (UCCAEP), complained to the Commission to Promote Competition (COPROCOM) that the Costa Rican government is using monopolistic practices.
There is a striking difference between the offers received by the Ministry of Finance in Costa Rica, in a competition which was held exclusively between state entities in order to avoid mandatory controls on public procurements.
EDITORIAL
In Costa Rica, there is a new phenomenon not seen before: the illogical is no longer surprising, and, what is worse, the unexplainable is accepted as normal.
The Ministry of Finance in Costa Rica is putting out to tender a supply of stationery and office supplies for public institutions that use SICOP nationwide.
Costa Rica Government Purchase 2015LN-000002-0009100001:
The comptroller has annulled the process under which the Ministry of Public Works of Costa Rica sought to build its office building, and authorized it to make another contract if they are able to justify it.
From a statement issued by the Comptroller General of the Republic (CGR):
CGR cancels contracting of MOPT Building
Through resolution R-DCA-755-2015 (attached), the Division of Administrative Contracting at the CGR resolved the appeal filed by the companies EDIFICAR, S.A., EDICA LIMITADA, ESTRUCTURAS, S.A., CONSTRUCTORA NAVARRO Y AVILES, S.A. against the act to award a direct contract 2015CD-000250-32900, promoted by the Ministry of Public Works and Transport for the "Structural design and construction of the first stage of a building for the headquarters of the MOPT, San Jose, prefabricated concrete building system," awarded to the company Eurobau SA, in the amount of ¢6,375,000,000.00 (six thousand three hundred seventy-five million colones).
The selected companies Productos de Concreto and the consortium Eurobau-Escosa submitted bids to build the office building for the Ministry of Public Works.
One of the two companies will be selected on Wednesday July 22 with the structural design work starting in August. According to the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, the two companies' proposals specify completing the work within eight months.
In order to shorten timeframes the Ministry of Transport and Public Works of Costa Rica intends to award the work not by tender but by private contest.
EDITORIAL
The difficulty in implementing public works Costa Rica is notorious, due to a heavy system of checks and guarantees which causes sometimes indefinite extensions of state infrastructure projects.
The Ministry of Public Works and Transportation has announced that it plans to publish, in the next three months, the tender documents for mobile laboratories for blood alcohol.
Currently the Costa Rican Social Security is the body responsible for carrying out blood alcohol tests, but according to the Traffic Act 9078, this should be undertaken by the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, an organization which is working on the terms of the tender, which will be published before May 2015.
The Chamber of Commerce has asked the Ministry of Finance to clarify changes in the new public procurement platform.
From a statement issued by the Chamber of Commerce in Costa Rica:
The Ministry of Finance has not justified the reasons why RACSA was delegated the development and management of the platform.
The Chamber of Commerce of Costa Rica requests that the Minister of Finance Helio Fallas, clarify the technical rationale behind the State's decision to develop a new public procurement system and the establishment of CompraRed as the obligatory platform for carrying out administrative procurement processes for the central government, while a new platform is being developed.
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