The construction of the project for the fourth power transmission line of the state-owned Electric Transmission Company, SA (Etesa) seems to take longer, since the tender for the environmental impact study has not yet been awarded.
After several observations and claims from some of the proponents presented within the bidding process for the environmental study of this project, the General Directorate of Public Procurement (DGCP) ordered to partially annul the report of the evaluation commission, published on January 14, 2022 .
According to the report, none of the four proponents complied 100% with the mandatory minimum requirements and others established in the specifications. For the evaluation, the offered price was weighted with 40% and 60% corresponded to the technical, administrative and financial criteria.
According to the proposals submitted on December 29, 2021, URS Holdings, Inc. offered $2,710,000; Técnica y Proyectos, SA (Typsa), 2 million 899 thousand; Environmental Consultants and Multiservices, SA, $2 million 889 thousand and Consorcio Proyeco Diceasa Socioambiental, $3 million 6 thousand. Etesa’s reference price for this environmental study tender is $4.2 million.
In the basic requirements, the report indicates that URS Holdings was the only one that complied with the current registration certification of environmental consultant, issued by the Ministry of Environment. It indicates that the other three proponents did not comply. Likewise, in the support personnel requirement, URS Holdings and Consultores Ambientales y Multiservicios, SA did not comply, while Typsa and Consorcio Proyeco did comply.
After a detailed review, the director of Public Procurement, Raphael Fuentes, ordered, through a resolution, that the same evaluation commission verify compliance or not with the points that generated observations and claims by the proponents, and proceed. to issue a new partial evaluation report, duly reasoned, in accordance with the rules that regulate the selection procedure for the best value contractor.
The resolution does not establish a deadline for presenting this new report.
The environmental study is a requirement to develop the fourth transmission line that will cross three ecological reserves in the country: the Reverendo Padre Jesús Héctor Gallego National Park, in Veraguas; the Donoso Multiple Use Area, between Coclé and Colón, and the Camino de Cruces National Park, in Panama. In addition, it passes through an area of the Ngäbe Buglé region. The administration of Juan Carlos Varela tendered the Etesa fourth transmission line project in April 2019, two months before the end of its term, but the act was declared void because the two bidders who attended did not meet the technical requirements.
After more than 30 months of the current government, the project, considered an important component in the electrical system to guarantee the transport of energy and have additional redundancy to the three existing lines, has not been put out to tender.
