QCOSTARICA – The Contraloría General de la República (CGR) – Comptroller General – once again rejected a request for an extension of the vehicle inspection contract with the Riteve company.
The request of the Consejo de Seguridad Vial (COSEVI) – Road Security Council, a division of the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation (MOPT), was to extend the concession for three more years.
The Comptroller, in rejecting the extension proposal, said that the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation (MOPT) and the COSEVI did not correctly justify the reasons why it is intended to extend the concession contract with the company of Spanish origin.
Read more: Uncertainty for Riteve employees and the country
Elard Ortega, associate manager of the Administrative Contracting Division of the Comptroller Entity, explained that “transport authorities omitted important information to grant the extent of the opposite”.
According to the Comptroller, it is now corresponding exclusively to the Government to define a strategy to continue the provision of the service.
President-elect, Rodrigo Chaves, referred to this issue at a press conference on Tuesday, indicating indicated that a year of contract with Riteve still remains. However, since follow-up questions were not possible, it was not possible to learn from where the president-elect obtained that information.
Chaves, who takes office at noon on May 8, apparently believes that there must be an open tender for companies interested in providing the vehicle technical inspection service, a position contrary to the MOPT and COSEVI, that there is no other bid in the works and that the country could end up without a vehicular inspection service after July.
For its part, the MOPT indicated that it will proceed to make a new request with the information requested by the Comptroller.
The spokeswoman of Riteve, Jennifer Hidalgo, says that at the moment they do not have any recent notification from the MOPT.
The concession contract with Riteve began in 2002 and ends on Friday, July 15, as established under law.
