Panama Canal Authority opens bids
The Panama Canal Authority said the Grupo Unidos por el Canal consortium, that includes Sacyr Vallehermoso of Spain, Impregilo of Italy, Jan De Nul of Belgium and Constructora Urbana of Panama, offered the lowest bid and had the highest technical score of three groups vying to build a new set of locks for the crossing.
Grupo Unidos bid $3.12 billion for the job, less than the authority’s $3.48 billion target price. The winning bid was more than $1 billion less than a $4.18 billion bid by a consortia of San Francisco’s Bechtel International, and the Japanese firms Taisei and Mitsubishi Corp. It was also nearly half of the $5.98 billion bid submitted by the C.A.N.A.L. consortium of three Spanish firms — ACS Servicios, Comunicaciones y Energ'a, Acciona Infraestructuras and Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas, along with Hochtief Construction of Germany and Constructoras ICA of Mexico.
The bids, along with the authority’s target price, had been locked in a vault since March 3 while the agency reviewed the technical merit of each proposal. Grupo Unidos also had the best technical score of the three proposals: 4,088.5 compared to 3,973.5 for the C.A.N.A.L. group and 3,789.5 for the Bechtel group.
In a public ceremony, the authority first presented the scores obtained from the technical evaluations and opened the price proposals submitted by all three consortia. Displayed on large video screens for the audience to view, the authority opened the sealed price proposals and revealed the technical scores — all done in the presence of a notary public and outside auditing firm. The authority then calculated a final weighted score — constituting 55 percent for the technical proposal and 45 percent for the price submission — live and on-screen.
The points for the price proposal and technical evaluation from each consortium were then combined and the highest total score became the 'best value' offer, which was submitted by Grupo Unidos.
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'Today's event marks a critical milestone for the ACP and Panama as we determine which consortium will design and build the canal's new locks,” said Alberto Alem'n Zubieta the authority’s administrator chief executive officer. He said the authority's technical evaluation board and external auditors “worked tirelessly to ensure an airtight course of action that reflects our staunch commitment to a fair, rigorous and transparent contracting process. Certainly, each step brings us closer to our end goal — the historic expansion of the Panama Canal — and we look forward to awarding the contract in the coming days.”
After all three consortia submitted proposals March 3, the authority's contracting officer and his team of specialists, which included the ACP Inspector General, auditors from Deloitte and the notary public, opened the technical proposals. The proposals were then divided into three areas for evaluation:
' Execution plan, construction, operations and maintenance.
' Design of electro mechanicals and controls.
' Design of the hydraulic system, lock gates and structures.
During the evaluation process, more than 50 local and international experts provided on-the-ground support for the technical evaluation board, working in coordination with the official ACP Contracting Officer. Deloitte served as auditor and reviewed the process to certify that this committee followed the necessary procedures to evaluate the bids.
The canal authority said the next step is for a price verification board, composed of canal employees who were not part of the technical evaluation board, to verify that the price proposal complies with the established requirements of the authority. The contracting officer will then proceed to verify the contractor's qualifications pursuant to the established regulations prior to awarding the contract.
The authority said it expects to award the contract in the next few days. ' Chris Dupin