April 13, 2023, 10:50 AM
April 13, 2023, 10:50 AM
The Minister of Government, Eduardo Del Castillo, justified the contract with the Brazilian company Cóndor for Bs 64 million for the provision of a batch of tear gas intended for anti-riot operations of the Bolivian Police.
The authority reported that the purchase was direct and without intermediariesas happened during the administration of his predecessor, Arturo Murillo, detained in the United States for a crime of fraud in which he was implicated, precisely, for benefiting from the purchase of these supplies.
Del Castillo recalled that case, but also revealed that Carlos Romero, the last government minister in the Evo Morales era, appealed to these intermediaries.
“The administration ofMr. Arturo Murillo was not the only one who hired intermediaries to purchase tear gas. A clear example is contract 626/2018, through which gas was purchased during the time of Mr. Carlos Romero to buy those tear gas from suppliers. We don’t know what happened then and We are going to instruct audits not only of Arturo Murillo’s administrations, but of past administrations”, declared Del Castillo, in a press conference in which he ensured transparency in this operation.
Furthermore, he said that there will be a saving of Bs 16 million which, as announced, will be used to strengthen security tasks carried out by the Police.
He specified that the procedure to acquire these non-lethal products was fulfilled within the framework of the application of Law 400 and the current regulations on the control of internal order. “We do not have the amount, but there are quite a few lots that the Police have appealed. Stock is being replenished”, he affirmed and denied that the acquisition is only to quell the current conflicts.
He indicated that quotes were requested from two Colombian companies, one from Mexico, another from Peru, three Bolivians, a firm from Spain, as well as two entities from the United States and the Brazilian company Cóndor, which is the one that was finally awarded the provision. That firm also manufactured the gases requested by the management of Jeanine Áñez, but then-minister Murillo managed the acquisition of tear gas from the Brazilian company Cóndor through the intermediary Bravo Tactical Solutions LLC (BTS), for US$5.6 million. .
“The only foreign company that responded to us was Cóndor Industria Química SA and it did so on December 22,” explained Del Castillo, who confirmed that there were two other quotes, for Bs 92 and Bs 87 million, provided by local companies. With the Bs 64 million requested by Cóndor, the deal with the Government was closed.
Del Castillo insisted that it was from there that the amount of savings came from. “We have decided to award the company that made the cheapest offer”, he stressed and anticipated that this cost includes the cost of transportation.
But, in November 2021the Attorney General’s Office included the Cóndor company in the Murillo case for being aware of the operation in which BTS participated. “Condor is included in the civil process because it knew of the overpricing, that the price of gases had doubled,” said state attorney Wilfredo Chávez at the time.
