Being awarded by G. 17.900 million, the questioned company of Rosa Mabel Capli returns to win another call for bids. With various complaints, a history of reprimands and questions, the firm continues to be the most chosen when it comes to providing supplies of food products.
The tender was carried out under the category of Food Products and was carried out by the Ministry of Children and Adolescents (MINNA), for the “Acquisition of Food Inputs and Pluriannual Basic Baskets”.
The aforementioned institution awarded 64 items, divided between Food Supplies and Basic Food Baskets. In the first group, the most outstanding prices are pumpkin, for G. 5,500 per kilo; tomato, for G. 14,940 per kilo; Tetrapak whole milk for G. 7,200 per kilo; orange for G. 5,175 per kilo; onion for G. 7,670 per kilo; apple for G. 15,200 per kilo and black potato for G. 7,990 per kilo.
The prices attract attention because, when compared with amounts found in the current market, there is a slight extra cost in them: pumpkin, for G. 3,950 per kilo; tomato, for G. 13,750 per kilo; Tetrapak whole milk for G. 5,600 per kilo; orange for G. 4,950 per kilo; onion per G. 6,600 per kilo; apple for G. 11,700 per kilo and black potato for G. 3,950 per kilo.
PREVIOUS QUESTIONS
Rosa Mabel Capli’s company already has a warning from the National Directorate of Public Procurement (DNCP), the reason for the institution says that the aforementioned firm “has failed to comply with its contractual obligations for causes attributable to it and as a consequence has caused damages or losses to the contracting institution ”.
However, beyond this antecedent found against the company, there is also a series of complaints that draw attention to the firm, since only on May 21 of last year, the Municipality of Asunción awarded the purchase of 480,240 liters of milk to Capli, for G. 5,150 per liter, reaching a total of G. 2,473,236,000.
The process was called a “low bid”, but Capli was the company that submitted the highest bid among the other two bidders. The company Vega SA, had offered an amount of G. 3,914 per liter, reaching a total price of G. 1,879,659,360. The difference between Capli and Vega SA was G. 593,576,640.
On the other hand, in November 2020, the Coordinadora de Ciudadanos Unidos de Itapúa had filed a complaint for an alleged perjury of assets through the school lunch program. Through a report from the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic (CGR), cost overruns had been corroborated in the purchase of milk and cookies.
The contract was awarded for a total sum of G. 43,830,236,970, for the El Colono Consortium, represented by Rosa Mabel Capli and María Alejandra Carlson. Apparently the Government of Itapúa had paid between 24% and 40% more over the market price, since they paid G. 6,420 for the milk when it cost G. 4,636; for G. 1,743 nougats, when they cost G. 1,500 and for cookies G. 921 when they cost G. 490.
In another process, carried out in February 2020 and again by the MINNA, the award for milk and gold cheese, for a total value of G. 17.9 billion to Capli, had been denounced. G. 7,070 was spent per liter of milk, when the market cost G. 4,600; The same happened with Paraguay cheese, for which they paid G. 49,950, when its market price reached G. 24,000.
NO ANSWERS
The El Independiente team tried to communicate with Carlos Villasboa, the director of the MINNA’s Contracting Operational Unit (UOC), however we did not get any response throughout the day because one of the lines was constantly busy, while another number of The telephone “provided” in the DNCP was left on hold until it ended by cutting off the call.
Similarly, the wording is open to any return that the Ministry deems appropriate to carry out.
