SANTO DOMINGO.-The executive director of the National Institute of Transit and Land Transportation (Intrant), Hugo Beras, requested yesterday, Thursday, from President Luis Abinader, a leave of absence without pay, due to new information revealed about the process of implementing the traffic light system in Greater Santo Domingo.
Beras stated that “the recent information given through the media leads me to side with the General Directorate of Purchases and Contracts, in order to facilitate this entire investigation process, so I have decided to take a leave of absence without pay and I have notified the President of the Republic, Luis Abinader.”.
The General Directorate of Public Procurement (DGCP) suspended the contract signed between Intrant and Transcore Latam, SRL, for the improvement of the traffic control center and the traffic light network of Greater Santo Domingo for an amount of RD$ 1,317 million 350 thousand 997.
The decision is contained in resolution RIC-156-2023, issued on October 27, and argues that it found evidence of irregularities in the bidding process carried out for such purposes.
In a statement released yesterday, Beras asserted that Intrant "has responded to all the concerns and requests of the DGCP regarding this process," while also stating that "I appeal that if my administration has been taken advantage of in this entire process, this should be clarified and the necessary measures taken.".
He reported that prior to the license application, he submitted a document to the General Directorate of Public Procurement (DGCP) requesting that the request for a change of precautionary measure submitted to the same body on November 3, 2023, be rendered ineffective.
“We join all the actions carried out by the competent bodies in order to clarify the veracity of the questioned documents, after which, if the presumptions are proven, the body would have been surprised in the good faith that is presumed of every bidder,” said Beras.
The irregularities
Public Procurement detailed that after analyzing the documents that make up the administrative file of procedure No. INTRANT-CCC-LPN-2023-0001 that is on the transactional portal and verifying the documents collected on the occasion of the claims and complaints presented to the governing body, the existence of the three elements that allow the adoption of a precautionary measure ex officio was verified.
The companies Icontrolt Kapsch and Trafficcom reported to the government entity that alleged irregularities were committed in the bidding process where Transcore LATAM was awarded a contract for RD$ 1,317 million 350 thousand 997.
The complainants said that the aforementioned entity is a limited liability company, established only 7 months before the bidding process was published, and managed to position itself above companies with more than 130 years of experience worldwide, such as Kapsch Trafficcom.
They made reference to the multiple transfers of shareholders of Transcore Latam, among them, a former supervisor of Intrant itself (who left the state entity seven months ago).
The governing body detailed that, among the complaints of irregularities made by said companies, it has been able to verify, in a preliminary way, that the technical offer of the winning company contains documents in English, without the proper translations.
It was also verified that, although the contracting company claims to have 19 years of experience in contracts of similar nature and magnitude, its commercial registration provided in the technical offer proves that it was established in 2022.
