The company spoke out after a report was released according to which it itself rejected the offer made by the Colombian-Chinese consortium to build units 5, 6, 7 and 8 of Hidroituango.
This weekend a report published on the EPM contracting portal was released, according to which the firm Schrader Camargo —the same firm that is building units 3 and 4 of the hydroelectric project and that must be delivered this year— does not meet experience requirements required to build, in partnership with Powerchina International (Sinohydro’s parent company) and Yellow River, power generation units 5, 6, 7 and 8 of Hidroituango.
“The offer presented by the ITUANGO PC-SC CONSORTIUM is rejected, given that the national member Schrader Camargo SAS does not meet the participation requirement established in numeral 2.2.7.-Experience-, of the Particular Conditions”, concludes the evaluation report, leaving in the air the proposal delivered by that consortium, the only one that was submitted to the tender .
Read More: Hidroituango final works are on hold: EPM rejects Chinese offer
But despite the fact that the report is clear in rejecting the offer, from EPM they affirm that the process has not been closed yet and that the company has until next Wednesday, February 22, to again support the experience presented or attach a new one.
For its part, the company Schrader Camargo S.A.S., issued a statement this afternoon in which they say that they do comply with all the contracting requirements demanded by EPM. The problem, they say, is that “Some of the certificates delivered, at the discretion of the contracting party, require more details”. Likewise, they promised to deliver the complete information that allows verifying compliance with the requirements associated with the experience before the deadline.
It is striking that Schrader Camargo SAS does not meet the experience requirements demanded by EPM when these in the past had already been lowered and even adjusted, in a questionable way for many, to the needs of the contractor.
It may interest you: The Hidroituango specifications, tailored to the Chinese?
In various communications between EPM and the Yellow River firm, the latter had urged EPM to modify the requirements set forth in the specifications, arguing that they are having problems finding a national partner with the required experience.
“The intense search for a local partner that we have carried out for more than three months it has not been successful (…). Many of the local firms that we explore tell us that they are not interested in participating in this project and/or not fulfilling the requested experience in the sheets”, Yellow River embodied in a letter, on June 12, 2022.
“We have found an alternative to partner with a local company that is interested and has extensive experience in this type of work, however, in order to comply with the particular conditions, it is necessary for EPM to proceed to reconsider one of the following propositions to conditions of experiencewhich the Colombian participant must provide,” the firm added at the time.
As a result of that request, EPM ended up publishing an addendum in August in which it agreed to Yellow River’s request.
For example, while before asking for at least 94,500 cubic meters of experience in tunnel, canal, landfill or bridge portalss, went on to demand 28,350 cubic meters.
Likewise, the company went from requiring a minimum area of 80 square meters in terms of excavation and construction of wells, tunnels or caverns, to an area of 57 square meters.
But apparently those gabelas were not enough. If the offer is definitively rejected, the final phase of Hidroituango would remain in limbo and it would suffer new delays in the schedule of execution of the work, since according to this the last contract should be awarded in March of this year.