The double standards and corruption in AMLO’s government.
The IMSS delegation in Hidalgo assigned to Cyber Robotics Solutions, owned by Leon Manuel Bartlett Alvarez, a contract for 31 million pesos for 20 respiratory ventilators. Each equipment was sold for 1’550,000 pesos, which is the highest price since the sanitary emergency was declared by Covid-19, according to a review of public contracts conducted by Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI).
MEXICO – The IMSS delegation in Hidalgo assigned Cyber Robotics Solutions, owned by Leon Manuel Bartlett Alvarez, son of CFE’s CEO Manuel Bartlett Díaz, a contract for 31 million pesos for 20 respiratory ventilators. Each piece of equipment was sold for 1.55 million pesos, which is the highest price since the sanitary emergency was declared by Covid-19, according to a review of public contracts carried out by Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI).
Manuel Bartlett Díaz. CEO of Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE)
The agreement to Cyber Robotics was assigned on April 17 by the IMSS. That same day the IMSS Hidalgo paid 880,000 pesos to another supplier called Conduit Life for a fan of similar characteristics but imported from Slovakia.
The contract review compared the prices paid by the federal government for similar ventilators, described by the General Health Council as “microprocessor-controlled electromechanical life-support equipment for ventilatory support in patients with compromised respiratory function. MCCI detected a difference of up to 85% between the cheapest and the most expensive.
Since March 27, when President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador signed a decree to allow the federal government to purchase medical equipment directly and without bidding, 30 allocation procedures have been carried out for the purchase of respiratory ventilators.
The IMSS made the first purchase on March 30 to LEVANTING GLOBAL SERVICES LLC, a company that committed to deliver two thousand 500 respirators from China, at an average price of 888,000 pesos.
The contract review compared the prices paid by the federal government for similar ventilators, described by the General Health Council as “microprocessor-controlled electromechanical life-support equipment for ventilatory support in patients with compromised respiratory function. MCCI detected a difference of up to 85% between the cheapest and the most expensive.
Since March 27, when President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador signed a decree to allow the federal government to purchase medical equipment directly and without bidding, 30 allocation procedures have been carried out for the purchase of respiratory ventilators.
The first purchase was made by the IMSS on March 30th to LEVANTING GLOBAL SERVICES LLC, a company that committed to deliver two thousand 500 respirators from China, at an average price of $888,000 pesos.
On the same day, the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena) assigned to the company Gestión en Riesgos de Desastres SA de CV the contract to buy 1,330 ventilators from China and Spain, each at a price of $898,000 pesos, equivalent to $37,500 dollars at the exchange rate of the award date.
More recently: on April 20 the IMSS agreed to pay 983 thousand pesos for ventilators originating from the United States to the company Bidcom Energy, and the next day ISSSTE assigned a contract to Médica D SA de CV to buy each piece of equipment at 980 thousand pesos.
On April 29th, Comercial de Especialidades Médicas SA de CV obtained a contract to sell to the IMSS delegation in Guanajuato 40 ventilators manufactured in Germany, each at an average price of $826,455 pesos.
In the documents that the government procurement system has made public, the highest price of the fans corresponds to the company of Bartlett Alvarez, who sold each team in 1.5 million pesos.
This, despite the fact that the fans that will be sold to the IMSS are manufactured by the Mexican brand Imágenes y Medicina S.A de C.V., and therefore will not have to assume the cost of import.
On April 16, the head of medical services of the IMSS requested by means of an official letter to carry out the hiring process since the ventilators “were an indispensable good to provide medical attention to the entitled persons”. That same day, it requested quotations from suppliers, including Bartlett Álvarez’s company.
A day later, on April 17, after evaluating the economic proposals, he determined that Cyber Robotics Solutions would supply the ventilators for the Hospital General de Zona con Medicina Familiar No. 1 in Pachuca, Hidalgo. It also awarded another company called Conduit Life a contract for two respiratory ventilators, each with a unit cost of 880,000 and 1,110,000 pesos, respectively.
The document mentions that representatives of the two companies had to be present on April 30th to sign the contract and the guarantee will be valid for 18 months. The decision of the award is signed by Salvador Cháidez Hernández, head of the coordination of supply and equipment of the IMSS.
Executives or representatives of Cyber Robotics were sought to know their position on the allocation of fans, but no contact was made. At the phone number they placed on their website no one answers the phone.
On the other hand, Imágenes y Medicina S.A de C.V., the manufacturer of the ventilators that sold the equipment to León Manuel Bartlett Álvarez, sent an email to MCCI with their position. Rodrigo Pacheco Vargas, administrative manager of that company, assured that because of the buyer’s request the information will be kept confidential.
While the IMSS said that it would channel the request of MCCI about this purchase to the corresponding area. Until the closing of this issue there was no response.
Note: The ventilator key corresponds to the following description from the General Health Council: “Microprocessor-controlled, electromechanical life-support equipment for ventilatory support in patients with compromised respiratory function”.
The company
Cyber Robotics Solutions was incorporated on March 20, 2010 by Alejandro Marina Vales, partner of Bartlett Álvarez, as stated in the articles of incorporation with commercial page 414723 registered in the Commercial Registry of Mexico City.
Both are the general attorneys-in-fact of a mirror subsidiary registered in Panama on March 11, 2019, in which two employees of a law firm specializing in creating offshore companies “or drawer” (i.e. that lack facilities and only exist on paper) are listed as alleged shareholders.
A report by Arelí Quintero for the Carlos Loret de Mola website, broadcast on 24 September 2019 by W Radio, revealed that Cyber Robotics Solutions is owned by Bartlett’s son and that since its creation in 2010 it had obtained nearly 800 million pesos in contracts for the sale of medical equipment to the ISSSTE and to hospitals of the Health Ministry.
The report said that the company had obtained its first contract with the administration of President Lopez Obrador on March 12, 2019 through a direct award of the Ministry of National Defense for $2 million 209 thousand pesos for “preventive and corrective maintenance” of the Da Vinci system, a robot used for surgery.
MCCI confirmed that in previous bidding processes for medical equipment of the IMSS, Leon Manuel Bartlett Alvarez has been responsible for presenting the economic proposal of Cyber Robotics, as the proxy of the company.
The company is dedicated to the distribution of high-tech medical equipment, construction and equipment of cancer centers and hospitals, as described on its website where also appears in the directory its subsidiary in Panama.
Panamanian affiliate.
Cyber Robotics Panama SA -a subsidiary of the Mexican company- was incorporated on March 11, 2019 with the presence of Notary Public Hermes Ariel Ortega Benitez. The act was formalized at the law firm C&M Cedeño y Mendez, located in Urbanización Obarrio Calle 60, in Panama City.
