Somos Pueblo TV’s El Piro (Eduardo Sánchez Tolentino) interviewed brother and sister Richi Torres and Vivian Torres, general manager and general secretary, of a company formed to supply school lunches to public schools.
They explained how they won the tender but then have encountered what they describe as the National Student Welfare Institute (Inabie) mafia. Inabie is in charge of contracting the public school meals for the Ministry of Education.
They explained that once they won the tender they were visited by a person in the know who offered them 20% for transfering their contract to a third party. The young team refused to do so. They then detailed their struggle to keep a hold on the tender they had been awarded. This has included starting supplying, despite not having signed a contract and not having received a cash advance.
Suplidora Rimayvi won a bidding process to supply school lunches, but obstacles have impeded them from continuing to deliver the lunches to their assigned public school despite their having the paperwork in order and the school being satisfied with their quality in food delivered.
The Torres brothers say Andres Montero, legal director at Inabie, has been the main obstacle.
In addition to telling their story on Somos Pueblo TV, the brothers said they are taking their case to the Ethics Department head by former Vice President Ortiz Bosch. El Piro called the attention of President Luis Abinader and Carlos Pimentel, director of the Procurement Agency, to the violations in the contracting.
The young entrepreneurs were awarded a contract to supply more than 1,000 lunches per day, but the Inabie has allotted the same contract to a different supplier, when there is no legal reason to repeal the Torres brothers award.
The complaint by the Torres brothers follows a long list of similar complaints regarding contracting at the Ministry of Education divisions since Roberto Fulcar was named Minister of Education in August 2020. The disputes have ranged from a tender for hundreds of thousands in orchids, to the disputed contracting of billions in e-devices, to the hiring of new teachers, and more.
Education Minister Roberto Fulcar called an investigation into the case, as reported in Somos Pueblo TV.
Read more:
Somos Pueblo
Somos Pueblo
Remolacha
Hoy
El Nuevo Diario
Inabie
DR1 News
29 October 2021