Payments to suppliers investigated in Inabie tenders must be withheld.

The General Directorate of Public Procurement ( DGCP ) recommended that the Comptroller General of the Republic not register or approve any type of payment associated with approximately 150 contracts signed within the framework of three bidding procedures carried out by the National Institute of Student Welfare ( INABIE ) for the acquisition of school supplies, until the final results of an ongoing investigation are presented.

The DGCP recalled that in April it instructed an ex officio investigation in order to verify the legality of the different stages of the procedures of National Public Tender No. INABIE -CCC-LPN- 2024-0008, INABIE -CCC-LPN- 2024-0010 and INABIE -CCC-LPN-2024-0012 after detecting indications of irregularities .

He revealed that on May 15, he sent a communication to the Comptroller's Office detailing some preliminary findings that allow for the identification of the specific suppliers involved in the alleged irregularities , whose contracts should not be registered or paid until the final decisions of the investigations are issued.

In a press release sent to the media, the DGCP explains that the preliminary findings of the investigation "include anti-competitive conduct such as collusion , conflicts of interest on the part of several awarded companies , and discrepancies regarding the addresses presented by several bidders."

Other possible irregularities include the existence of companies awarded contracts without the corresponding category in their State Supplier Registry (RPE) registration certificates; irregularities in evaluation and award criteria; lack of clarity and contradictions in the tender documents; and possible failure to publish complete application forms.

The DGCP revealed that between April 24 and May 27, 2025, it informed the awarded suppliers that they had the right to initiate an ex officio investigation procedure to defend their contracts, but to date, only 12 successful bidders have exercised their right of defense .

"Once the deadlines for receiving the defense briefs have expired, this General Directorate has a period of thirty (30) business days to issue the preliminary results of the investigations and notify the institution ( Inabie ), the officials and the other parties involved so that they may present their final defense arguments, as provided in article 224 of the Implementing Regulations approved by Decree No. 416-23."

In this regard, the DGCP announced that in the coming days it will be issuing administrative acts containing the preliminary results of the investigations .

The governing body recalled that, in parallel with this investigation , it is working in collaboration with the Anti-Fraud Unit of the Comptroller General's Office on another special investigation that includes interviews with experts and Inabie personnel and a formal exchange of relevant information from the Electronic Public Procurement System in order to identify possible responsibilities of the actors who participated in the processes.

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