Civil groups question procurement law

PRESIDENT  Juan Carlos Varela has approved a law governing government procurement that leaves the door open for companies like Odebrecht that have been convicted of corruption to bid on future projects.

Varela attached his signature a month after the bill was approved in a  National Assembly third debate.

Aneth Planells of the Independent Movement (Movin) said that the new procurement law contains advances in transparency, caps on addenda, limits on best value bids with separate evaluation, but there is still room for improvement.

She considers that it is the duty of the deputies to present a new project that contemplates the veto of these companies and includes the purchase of medicines in public procurement reports El Siglo.

Political analyst Richard Morales stressed that the Procurement Law will not have a significant impact because it maintains methods that affect the State, so it is important to push for changes to benefit the state coffers.

Although some of the excesses in the contracts are limited, it still allows deals that are harmful to the State, such as turnkey ones and the excessive profit scheme at the cost of public resources, in which the costs of the works are socialized but the benefits are privatized “he said.