Million-dollar BNF bidding faces formal protest

Protest in banking system tender

The bidding process by the Banco Nacional de Fomento (BNF) aimed at the acquisition and implementation of a new core banking system registered a new setback after the formalization of a protest by the company Softshop S.A., as originally reported by the newspaper ABC Color. The company was Itti's only competitor in the public tender and pointed out alleged inconsistencies in the evaluation process that resulted in its disqualification.

The bidding process, registered under ID 480.207, has a reference price of 135.853 billion guaranis, equivalent to approximately US$ 22.7 million. The modality adopted was the double-envelope system, separating the technical and functional evaluation from the commercial proposal. With Softshop's exclusion in the first stage, only Itti advanced to the next phase of the contest.

Main points of the contestation

• Softshop S.A. filed a formal protest on October 7 against its disqualification from the process.
• The company alleges that the BNF Evaluation Committee applied different criteria among competitors.
• The reference value of the public tender is G. 135.853 billion (about US$ 22.7 million).
• The excluded company states that its score would reach the required minimum even with the observations made by the public bank.

According to statements by Softshop representatives reproduced by the local press, the exclusion occurred through an evaluation that allegedly did not strictly follow the criteria of the Pliego de Bases y Condiciones (PBC). Meanwhile, the public bank maintains that the process is not rigged, although the decision keeps only one participant in the dispute for the million-dollar contract.

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