Contracts for more than 728 million pesos for the purchase of hydrogel were awarded without a bidding process by the Welfare Secretariat to a company that has never been a government supplier and whose registered address is a sushi restaurant.
(EMEEQUIS Mexico).- Comercializadora Realza received more than 728 million pesos in contracts from AMLO’s “Ministry of Welfare” in 2019 to purchase hydrogel. What stands out is that the contracts were granted by the direct award to a company with no previous government contracts.
Comercializadora Realza is a company legally incorporated under Mexican law with public deed number 228 on April 23, 2015, before Notary Public Number 8 of Merida, Yucatan, as evidenced in the copy of the Public Registry of Commerce that EMEEQUIS obtained.
It is observed that the company’s owners Comercializadora Realza S.A. de C.V. are the brothers Miguel Ángel Uicab Nah and Juan Carlos Uicab Nah, the former holding 30% and the latter 70% of the shares.
The company assigned as its representative Mr. Manuel Gaspar Evia Heredia, who signed the contracts with the Secretaría del Bienestar in the Sembrando Vida program. Even though the company’s corporate name does not specialize in selling agricultural products but is an “all-inclusive” company with 20 social objectives, it received contracts by direct award —one of the contracts for 199 million.
THE CONTRACTS
The company has received three contracts with the Federation, all with the Welfare Secretariat, and by the direct award method; all these were for hydrogel purchase for the “Sembrando Vida” program.
- Contract 411.600.43101.133/2019 was awarded on September 12, 2019, for 307 million 307 thousand pesos.
- Contract number 411.600.43101.131/2019 for 199 million 546 thousand pesos was delivered on the same date.
- Contract 411.600.43101.132/2019 for 192 million 67 thousand pesos.
Despite not being large hydrogel marketers at the national level or having no previous sales, they were granted the direct award modality, with an exception to the public bidding for the “Acquisition of materials, tools, and supplies for the operation of community nurseries and biofactories of the Sembrando Vida Program.” It is explained that it is “derived from the urgency, as well as by the particular characteristics of the goods to be acquired and the need to assist the beneficiary communities in starting the productive cycles. In addition to the above, conducting a public bidding procedure would imply that, according to the operational dynamics that are being implemented, the times and processes in which the Program is and for issues of seasonal periods suitable for crops, the final goal of the Program for the current fiscal year 2019”.
THE ADDRESS: A SUSHI RESTAURANT.
The company has two legal addresses, but neither points to a warehouse or a company that appears to have the infrastructure to deliver the thousands of sacks of hydrogel it was supposed to deliver for the Sembrando Vida program.
The first address, registered at Calle 31, 679D, zip code 9714, Colonia Ciudad Caucel in Merida Yucatan, currently houses a Japanese restaurant called “El Sushi.” The other registered address is at number 605, 63rd Street, also in the Ciudad Caucel neighborhood in Merida Yucatan, where a social housing project and a street vendor cart is parked at the entrance.
Read EMEEQUIS full investigation here
The Yucatan Times – Newsroom
