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Paraguay minister defends bidding process amid cost overruns claims
🇵🇾 Paraguay /Elections & Politics

Paraguay minister defends bidding process amid cost overruns claims

From ABC Color · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources Context piece
  • Paraguay's Public Works Minister Claudia Centurión defends the country's infrastructure project bidding process.
  • Senator Éver Villalba claims 20 MOPC tenders were awarded significantly above reference prices, totaling $157 million.
  • Centurión argues that economic criteria alone lead to failure and that reference prices are guides, not strict limits.

Paraguay's Minister of Public Works, Claudia Centurión, has responded to accusations of inflated costs in government infrastructure projects, asserting that prioritizing only the lowest economic bid can lead to failure. The defense comes after Senator Éver Villalba of the Authentic Radical Liberal Party (PLRA) alleged that 20 tenders from the Ministry of Public Works and Communications (MOPC) were awarded at a cumulative cost of $157 million above reference prices.

Having only the economic criterion for awarding works leads to failure.

— Claudia CenturiónMinister of Public Works defending the ministry's bidding practices.

Villalba presented a case where a road improvement project, initially estimated by the MOPC at approximately 24 billion Paraguayan guaranis, saw bids ranging up to 48 billion guaranis. He claimed that a lower, qualifying bid was disqualified. Centurión, however, stated that out of 121 awards totaling over $1.95 billion, the average variation above the reference price was only 8%.

One could look into particular cases, but just as some are above the reference price, many others are below.

— Claudia CenturiónAddressing allegations of inflated contract prices.

"One could look into particular cases, but just as some are above the reference price, many others are below," Centurión said in an interview. She emphasized that reference prices serve as a guide, not a sole criterion for awarding contracts. The law, she explained, mandates awarding contracts to the lowest bid that meets technical, legal, and financial requirements, ensuring a successful outcome for the state.

In fact, more than 76% of the contracts are within the average and the reference price is, as the name suggests, for reference. It is by no means a criterion for awarding.

— Claudia CenturiónClarifying the role of reference prices in contract awards.

Centurión further elaborated that the bidding process considers various factors beyond just price, including technical capacity, financial solvency, and work methodology. These criteria are crucial for guaranteeing the viability and quality of infrastructure projects, preventing the pitfalls of awarding contracts based solely on the cheapest offer, which could compromise the project's long-term success and value for the Paraguayan state.

Under no circumstances does it say to award at the lowest price or award at the reference price, because that would be simplifying extremely complex processes.

— Claudia CenturiónExplaining the legal framework for awarding public works contracts.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by ABC Color in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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