The National Institute for Early Childhood Care (Inaipi) is directed by Berlinesa Franco, who is the widow of Juan de los Santos, founder of the country’s largest sports betting chain and a former mayor of the municipality of Santo Domingo East. De los Santos died when murdered on 15 December 2015 by a disgruntled employee. After his death, his widow was appointed to the position.
Now, while the country is undergoing the worst health and economic crisis ever, the media carries the story of major irregularities at the government agency where emergency procurement operations have been authorized.
Government supplier Pablo Cabrera, who is the president of La Z, a food distributor and supplier, denounced on “Esta Noche con Mariasela” TV variety show major irregularities in a recent procurement operation. He produced proof whereby the government entity had posted a request the bids for food kits order at 6pm obliging bidders to submit the bid no later than 9am on the following morning.
The call for bids dated 31 March 2020 was to supply Inaipi with 40,000 food kits. He said the winner of the bid was not one of the four that registered for the tender. He said the winner won a contract to supply the 40,000 food kits for RD$2,500, when the kit components cost no more than RD$600 each. He said an insider in Inaipi sent him a photo of the components that were included in the winning bid for RD$2,500 for each of the 40,000 food kits, or a purchase order for RD$100 million.
Cabrera says evidence of the contracting was erased from the Inaipi website but that he photographed everything and kept copies that are evidence of what he is saying. He said he knows he may be sued for making the claims and thus has sought to substantiate his claims.
Carlos Pimentel, of the civic watchdog organization Citizen Participation, said that the organization’s purchase of food kits does not fall under the exemptions granted by the National State of Emergency. Pimentel said that what Cabrera described does not fall under the requirements for government procurement. He said a tender cannot be called one day and closed on the next. Pimentel mentioned that the tender is not listed in the contracting carried out in March. Cabrera said the tender was erased, but he has a copy of the tender as evidence.
Pimentel called for Yokasta Guzmán, the director of the National Procurement Agency, to explain the situation of this contracting, and for Inaipi to also give an explanation. He said from what Cabrera explains, several requirements of the Procurement Law 340-06 were violated.
Follow the story in Spanish:
Somos Pueblo
Listin Diario
https://youtu.be/QSCSLL148y4 –– Esta Noche con Mariasela
Procurement Law
9 April 2020