The Comptroller General of the Republic issued a report announcing that irregularities were detected in the third tender for the 65,587 tons of urea for the Ministry of Agrarian Development and Irrigation (Midagri)for which he recommended disqualifying the winning company, Ready Oil Supply LLC.
According to the report, the company failed to submit its financial statements for the last three years, as required by the process. It only presented those corresponding to fiscal year 2021 and argued, to correct this irregularity, that during the years 2019 and 2020 it ceased activities due to the pandemic.
However, the Comptroller found that said information is not true since what is expressed in its company constitution indicates that it is a limited liability company and organized on February 4, 2021.
The information was confirmed by Comptroller on the website of the Department of State of Florida, United States.
In that line, the Comptroller reported a lack of uniformity on the part of the purchasing team of midagriin the application of criteria regarding the evaluation of the offers presented by the bidders, including Direcagro-Grupo 06 SA, with similar faults.
Other reasons to disqualify the company
Besides, the Comptroller rejected that the bidders make the urea delivery term conditional on the receipt of the letter of credit, even though it had been established that this only occurs the business day following the notification of the purchase order.
Also, differences were detected in the fertilizer delivery time, despite having been established at 45 and 60 calendar days for the first and second batch, respectively, thus failing to comply with the requirements established in the updated technical specifications.
midagri responds
rural agriculture, entity attached to Ministry of Agrarian Development and Irrigation (Midagri) and in charge of urea fertilizer purchase processresponded to the Comptroller’s Office with a statement, assuring that the purchase of said product was carried out in a transparent and with equal treatment to all bidders.
According to Agro Rural, the purchase process was governed by “the uses and customs of international trade, as a standard of higher rank”. This international standard has as an international term Incoterm DDP and is used “when the seller covers the maximum responsibilities of the merchandise” and “make import payments at customs, among other contractually agreed obligations”.
In that sense, the entity specified that the acquisition, during the bid evaluation stage, was framed in that standard. Furthermore, he pointed out that “at all stages of the process” was permanently accompanied by the Institutional Control Body (OCI) of Rural Agriculture.