The company Ladero Paraguayo SA was awarded for a total value of G. 818 million. He managed to win the so-called tender; “Provision of School Lunch, Under the Modality of Food Prepared in Educational Institutions (Cooking) Pluriannual 2022-2023” with ID 410.637. For this tender, offers began to be received on June 23.
The Municipality of Acahay was the institution in charge of carrying out the Call for Tenders under the category; “Ceremonial, Gastronomic and Funeral Services”, by the type of Bid Contest procedure.
The aforementioned institution awarded one item; the school lunch provision service for G. 818 million. The aforementioned firm has Osvaldo Jean Pujol and José Luis Aquino as legal representatives. Ladero Paraguayo SA was the only company that responded to the call.
IRREGULARITIES
What is striking about this tender is that the Bidding Terms and Conditions (PBC) of the tender is not available to be downloaded from the web. This generates suspicions since the winning firm, Ladero Paraguayo, has complaints of custom-made specifications in its favor, to win the majority of tenders related to school lunch. We tried to communicate with Andrés Ramírez, in charge of the Contracting Operations Unit (UOC) of the commune, however, he did not answer our calls to the low line number ending 008.
BACKGROUND
According to data available on the website of the National Directorate of Public Procurement, Ladero Paraguayo benefited from 264 tenders between 2010 and last year. This represents around US$82.5 million in contracts with the State.
The most questioned calls won by the firm are; ID 374969, in the same, the Municipality of Mayor Otaño (Itapúa) awarded G. 408 million (US$ 60 thousand) to the company Ladero Paraguayo. Among the requirements is that the interested party must have an experience of 70% of the amount in the last 5 years. With this, a new company in the field is automatically left out.
In ID 374686, the Municipality of Yatytay (Itapúa), awarded G. 390 million (US$ 58 thousand) to the firm. In addition to the experience of the last five years, as in the previous case, the PBC of this call requests at least 18 employees registered in IPS, shown in payroll for the last 6 months.
What is striking is the need for a specific number of officials. When for less, the service can be performed. And if a company hires them once the agreement is closed, it would not work either because of the requirement of six months of payments to the Social Security Institute (IPS).
The third questioned call is 374295. In this case, the Government of San Pedro disbursed G. 9,200 million (US$ 1.4 million) for the provision of school lunch.
The PBC highlights that the interested company must demonstrate experience in the field of commercialization and/or production of food for people, with a minimum seniority of six (6) years and for an amount equivalent to at least 50% of the total amount. offered in this tender, on average for the years 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.
Considering that the firm is the winner of almost all similar calls. It is easy to deduce that there is no company in the country that has that experience.
Due to the lack of competition, the firm can present high offers in its offers, always remaining as the winner in the face of no competition. This leads to the detriment of resources for the State.
