ICTSI gets government review for bidding appeal in Costa Rica

MANILA, Philippines — The flagship business of richest Filipino Enrique Razon Jr. has succeeded in prompting Costa Rica to review the bidding process for a terminal where it claims to be irregularly excluded from.

International Container Terminal Services Inc. yesterday said the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic (CGR) has admitted its appeal to review the alleged bidding irregularities for Puerto Caldera.

In a letter dated May 12, the CGR asked the Costa Rican Pacific Ports Institute (INCOP) and the winning concessionaire Sunset Consortium to respond to the allegations made by ICTSI.

ICTSI is protesting INCOP’s decision to exclude the company from participating in the bidding for Puerto Caldera without proper explanation. INCOP barred ICTSI from joining for reportedly exceeding the debt-to-equity ratio required for the tender.

However, ICTSI said  that a week prior to the bidding, INCOP had confirmed ICTSI’s debt ratio as compliant with the requirement. With ICTSI out of the picture, the bidding ended with a single proposal from Sunset, made up of APM Terminals B.V. and HGT Inversiones Costa Rica S.A.

In its appeal, ICTSI said its debt score was changed during the evaluation phase from compliant at 1.33, to non-compliant at 2.16, even though financial information used was unchanged.

Moreover, ICTSI said the evaluation committee did not detect the reported issues in the engineering design of Sunset’s proposal, from the unfit configuration of new docks, to the below standard availability times.

On top of this, ICTSI said Sunset is composed of two competitors that have the capacity to offer separate proposals in the bidding.

As such, ICTSI believes their decision to work together constitutes monopolistic behavior.

ICTSI said INCOP has failed to comply with its duty of informing Costa Rica’s competition body about this matter.

ICTSI lawyer Victor Mora said the CGR is demanding INCOP and Sunset to explain their side. Afterward, the CGR is mandated to issue a ruling within 40 days, extendable by 15 days.

Mora also said Sunset might face possible sanctions for potentially violating the competition law.

ICTSI is looking forward to the completion of the investigation by the antitrust body.

ICTSI business development director for the Americas Bart Wiersum said the company is hoping the CGR corrects the alleged irregularities in the bidding process.