The Guatemalan Institute of Migration (IGM) is prepared to present a new tender to buy cardboard cards, and analyzes the incorporation of the electronic modality in the document, after improbating the last tender.
In February of this year, the IGM began a bidding process of three million passport cards; There were two offers.
On April 24, unanimously, the Board decided to award the purchase to Editorial Sur, SA, who through the French company in Continuing and Services Sociedad for Simplified Shares (IN Groupe), would print the three million passport cards for Q105.7 million, the cheapest offer.
The Deputy Director of the IGM, Eduardo Woltke, had improbted in the first instance, in the absence of the director, Danilo Rivera, the decision of the Board and questioned the company In Groupe, which in an earlier event, in which he participated with another partner, had presented products with problems in the printing of the barcode, an argument that also took into account a second audit of the Comptroller’s Office to the process.
The bidding board, despite the doubts that Woltke said, decided to ratify its resolution and award the purchase to Editorial Sur, SA
However, on May 31, the IGM decided to unlike what was acted by the Bidding Board and among the reasons considered an audit of the Comptroller General of Accounts of May 13, in which it warns that reference prices were not included that allowed establishing a competitive price for purchase; In addition, the Comptroller questioned the suitability of the members of the Board.
The Comptroller’s doubts had already been answered by the IGM. In the case of the lack of reference prices, he indicated that “it is not appropriate to use a reference price established by the National Statistics Institute. Instead, the Guatemalan Institute for Migration has estimated a market price that reflects competition conditions, thus establishing the upper acceptable upper limit for its award.”
Regarding the suitability of the Board, the IGM defended its integration and said: “The candidates are proposed taking into consideration their academic preparation, and their knowledge or experience according to the type of good or service that you want to acquire (…) the distribution of profiles accurately covers the three areas established by it – Law -: Legal, financial and technical.”
In addition, he indicated that the Board of Bidding through the Administrative Act issued on May 26, ratifying the award, “did not present the foundations or clear reasons that motivated its decision to ratify the resolved (…) which constitutes an essential element to legitimize the decision.”
In that same act, a recital recalls that in the improbation made by the deputy director of Migration, “it was determined that the manufacturer of the Editorial Sur, Anonymous Society, is the entity in continu 16216717, awarded to the entity called Icards Solutions, a variable capital corporation and presented as a final product cards for ordinary passport that lacked barcode, being an error of the manufacturer, since this is an essential element for reading and assigning the passport production processes ”.
These arguments were recorded in the minutes of May 31, in which finally the director of the IGM decided to conclude the process and start a new one.
New purchase
The director of the IGM, Danilo Rivera, went to a summons with deputies that make up the migrant commission, chaired by Congressman Miguel Ovalle, of the National Unit of Hope (UNE).
The IGM does not have an exact date of when this update process for the Guatemalan passport could begin. Meanwhile, new cards will be acquired to continue the issuance of the traditional passport.
“We are going to generate an upcoming tender to be able to supply mechanical notebooks and we will also introduce electronic notebooks. It is important to meet the demands of the population,” Rivera told the deputies.
Rivera said that soon they hope to “generate the next tender and subsequently enter the issue of electronic notebooks,” he said.
There are cards
During the citation, Deputy Ovalle questioned the IGM for the suspension of a bidding event in which new cards for passport issuance was sought.
Rivera explained that they finally decided not to grant the contract with the company.
“It generated, at our discretion, risk to establish a contract; we saw situations that could harm the State, which is why it is reckless,” said the director of the IGM on a bidding process terminated a few weeks ago.
The director added that for now there is no risk of running out of cards, as it has circulated on some social networks, explaining that they have enough quantity to operate.
“We are not at risk of running out of cards, we have one million 118 thousand cards available, which reaches us for one year. We are going to raise another more measured event,” he said.