Colombia's ICT ministry (MinTIC) has cancelled a tender to connect over 3,000 schools. However, it does seem as though the process to connect 3,082 public educational institutions for a total of COP408 billion (US$101.6 million) will reopen – in approximately one month, according to the ministry.
The BNamericas news service explains that the decision was made after the attorney general's office warned that changes introduced in an addendum altered the meaning of the specifications and conditions.
It seems, according to earlier news reports, that the attorney general's office had indicated that one of the addendums – relating to the technical requirements of the Wi-Fi points to be installed – changed the meaning of the specifications and conditions. Therefore, it modified the economic calculation that the bidders had to make.
MinTIC does seemto feel that the so-called addendum was as merely a clarification and that it did not affect eligibility or the selection process. However, it has decided to adjust the tender if necessary, so this is now on hold. In fact BNamericas says that, although the ministry indicated that all stages of the bidding “met all the conditions of transparency, rigour and care of public assets”, the decision to call off the opening ceremony of the process was made “to provide more guarantees”.
Before the cancellation, the tender had been suspended twice, most recently this month when MinTIC decided to extend the suspension for ten days. This followed the lack of a response by the attorney general's office to a report sent by the ministry on its concerns about the bidding process.
How this affects the companies that had expressed interest in the tender is not clear, though when the tender is finally opened it will be interesting to see what sort of response it gets.
