Awarding more than G. 2 billion for the maintenance of a machine used for asphalting, the Municipality of Asunción invests G. 1,000 million more, when in 2019 it had only awarded just over G. 600 million for the same items requested.
The company Proyec SAE was awarded for a total value of G. 2,051,158,000, in the call for bids for “Maintenance Service of the Ammann Power Plant”, from the Roads Directorate of the Municipality of Asunción.
The type of procedure was through a contracting by exception and the only company presented during the call for bids was Proyec SAE. The requested item corresponds to “Maintenance and repair of the asphalt plant”, which would apply to a single machine. Likewise, the sublots refer to the request for care for the product.
However, making a comparison regarding the prices and services requested, the Municipality had already made a call for bids during 2019 for the same “Maintenance of the Ammann Power Plant” service.
In said awarding process, the company Proyec SAE again won during the process, but on that occasion it was for the amount of G. 635,069,258 million, with a maximum of G. 1,000 million. The call corresponds to the same requirements requested in the current stage, since the “Maintenance and repair of the asphalt plant” service is also requested, for a machine.
The contracting was also carried out on this occasion by exception and the only company presented was again Project SAE. Making a slight comparison, the difference between both awards is a total of G. 1,051,158,000 million, only for two years of lapse between one award and another.
SERVICES
In communication with the contracting administration department of the Municipality, they stated that said entity is not in charge of determining the prices for each call for bids, but rather the Highway Administration.
In this way, the contracting administration is only responsible for publishing the already established price. For this reason, they referred the El Independiente team to the Roads Directorate, where the engineer Edgardo Gómez, director of the aforementioned area explained that this year’s call for bids is highlighted by the need for foresight on the part of the Roads Directorate for the projects that are being carried out.
These tasks correspond to repairs and resurfacing of avenues and streets of the Asunción Road Network and, since the asphalt plant is of vital importance for the production of hot mix asphalt, it requires proper maintenance, taking into account the comments of the engineer Gómez.
Ing. Edgardo Gómez
The Ammann brand plant corresponds to a machine used for the production of asphalt and it is located within the Directorate of Roads. Through this tool, the raw material is obtained that is later used for repairing the streets or fixing potholes.
Likewise, the Municipality has only one machine and the Director of Roads stated that the periodic maintenance service is carried out according to the amount of asphalt produced, also taking into account the values recommended by the manufacturer or representative, Proyec SAE
The engineer Gómez highlighted that Proyec SAE is the only company awarded because only said firm appears as the representative of the Ammann brand. “Currently the awarding of this year is in the process of communication and within this process the start of execution is expected once the contracting code is issued by the National Directorate of Public Procurement”, he commented.
PLAYS
Although the maintenance of the machine is carried out according to the amount of asphalt produced, the tasks carried out by the municipality in terms of improving the streets were not highly praised. Only in July 2020 many roads suffered from lack of maintenance and others were damaged after Essap’s interventions that later took time to be repaired by the Municipality.
During that time, the repair of approximately 15 areas had been requested. On the other hand, already during this year, the councilor for the Patria Querida party, Álvaro Grau, had indicated that 56% of the asphalt in the city is expired.
However, through the Directorate of Roads, the Municipality aimed to carry out a road improvement project in the Mburicaó neighborhood area, which will cover a total of 1,290 linear meters.
