On May 8, the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce (SIC) formulated a statement of charges against Ecopetrol, Cenit, Ocensa (Oleoducto Central SA) and the contracting company Helistar SAS did this due to an alleged targeting of contracts and restrictive practices to competition.
The SIC’s argument is that the fixing of “tailor sheets” —those that are tailored to the “friendly” offeror to whom they end up awarding the contract in exchange, generally, for a commission or bribe— They occurred in hiring processes, carried out between 2011 and 2023, of the helicopter transportation service, which together represented a budget exceeding $417,524 million.
In context: They formulate a statement of charges against Ecopetrol for alleged rigged contracts made between 2011 and 2023
After almost a month of this statement, today, June 4, the Ecopetrol Group issued a statement in which assured that it has implemented the observations made by the Superintendency of Industry and Commercein relation to the current contracting process for the helicopter air transport service.
In addition, the state oil company indicated that the Attorney General’s Office maintains the preventive surveillance requested by Ecopetrol, with the aim of giving greater protection to the process.
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Therefore, they launched three actions: first, The company decided to extend the deadline for submitting offers until June 26, 2024.
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Second, Ecopetrol continues to evaluate the observations presented by those interested in participating in the process, with the purpose of verifying that absolutely all the technical requirements demanded respond to the needs of the Ecopetrol Group and ensure the participation of the greatest number of bidders. Third, once this evaluation is completed, Modifications, adjustments and clarifications will be made through addendum, if applicable.
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What the SIC said
According to the SIC, it was found that two requirements were established in several specifications that would have been unjustified and that prevented the participation of proponents that could compete with Helistar.
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The first was the requirement that the aircraft that the interested bidder had to present had an age that was favorable for the fleet that Helistar could propose. However, the SIC stated, this was not supported by any applicable standard to the air transport service.
The second requirement was require that at the time of presentation of the offer, the bidders have available in the national territory the aircraft already modified for the provision of the service.
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These modifications included aspects such as the installation of armor, the inclusion of a commercial hour meter and the installation of a cargo hook.
Denying the essential preparation period to prepare the aircraft, according to the SIC, it would have prevented other proponents from participating in the process and would have favored Helistar.
