American Expatriate Costa Rica

Complaint against Ministry of Finance for expensive electronic billing project

On Thursday, the Chamber of Information and Communications Technology (CAMTIC) filed a complaint for anti-competitive practices that affect the State and the private sector, against the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service Company of Heredia (ESPH).

Otto Rivera, executive director of the group, explained that the electronic billing project was assigned to ESPH for $ 8.5 million (4.733 million colones), a cost that the Chamber says exceeds the real market price of the project, which would be around $ 3 million.

The complaint also claims that the authorities did not assess whether the ESPH had technical expertise to complete the project or if they should use outsourcer services in order to do it.

Rivera also believes what is really questionable is the higher cost of the project that must be paid by the State.

CAMTIC’s preliminary studies showed that the developing of the project including servers, hard drives and computers as well as connectivity to computers and broadband can cost just $ 3 million if provided by the private sector.

crhoy.com