OPINION: A $207 million scam?

A recent tender by the Social Security Fund (CSS), in which a contract was awarded to renew diagnostic imaging equipment throughout the country –for an amount of $207 million– has all the characteristics of a great and blatant scam. The most striking thing about the bidding process is that, despite the fact that it is a contract that had a reference price of $189 million, no one showed up for the bidding process, except for a consortium that, as stated, had no competition whatsoever. Why didn’t more bidders come forward for such a large contract? Experience tells us that contracts of this scope are almost always arranged from the tender documents and, in fact, in the acts that preceded the bidding, there were protests from other companies, and even one of these –among the largest in the industry– presented an annulment motion against all the proceedings. It is also notorious that the contract is global when it could have been awarded to several companies; as well as the fact that the contract price is almost 10% above the reference price. It is obvious that, knowing surely that, in fact, there would be no contest, there were no problems in raising the proposal. And so it was done. LA PRENSA, Feb. 6.