Petroecuador awarded the insurance contract despite the fact that a judge ordered the suspension of the tender

On Wednesday morning, August 30, Petroecuador made the announcement awarded to the insurance company La Unión at insurance policy contract of all oil risks, marine civil liability and non-marine civil liability, valued at $99.1 million. However, the announcement was made two days after the judge of the canton of Yaguachi, John Rodríguez Mindiola, on Monday the 28th, accepted the request for Precautions and ordered the public company to “suspend the bidding process” and is recommended declare the tender invalid.

The underwriting process drew criticism for the high amount, compared to the $54.8 million contract in 2021. And they jumped suspicions of alleged irregularitiesin which public officials and a representative of a private company were allegedly involved, in order to shorten the current tender and thereby extend the previous contract.

In this regard, videos circulated on social networks, and a post on the channel Teleamazonabout a meeting where they would plan how to end the competition.

Seguros La Unión wins controversial insurance contract from Petroecuador for $99.1 million

In a statement released on Tuesday, the public company reported that the recruitment process started on July 31 and was considered in the 2023 Annual Contracting Plan which had a suitability and affordability report issued by the State Comptroller General.

That the tender was published on the public procurement portal “and on August 29, 2023, the recommendation of the Technical Commission appointed for this procurement procedure was accepted.” With that, Petroecuador explained, the contract was awarded to La Unión Compañía Nacional de Seguros SA

The state-owned oil company confirmed that all its processes “are under surveillance by various competent control institutions”.

Petroecuador did not mention anything about the precautions taken by Judge Yaguachi.

The judge who accepted the precautionary measures restored Jorge Glas’ political rights

On Monday, August 28 at 02:30 a.m. citizen Noris Patricia Gómez Alvarado filed a request for precautionary measures against Ramón Correa Vivanco, general manager of the public company Petroecuador. The case fell through John Erik Rodriguez Mindiolawho, on the same day, a few hours later, decided to accept the request.

The judge was embroiled in controversy over his resolutions. The most notorious case, and for which he is being investigated by the prosecutor’s office, was the one from June 9 of this year, when he restored political rights to former vice president Jorge Glas, even though he had several stiff sentences for corruption cases.

Gómez Alvarado based his request for precautionary measures against Petroecuador, “to prevent acts of corruption from occurring to the detriment of all citizens of Ecuador.”

In the lawsuit, he stated that he found out about the competition for the insurance policy through social networks, especially from the account of journalist Carlos Vera, on Instagram and other media, where information about the process was spread and that it was condemned that Petroecuador “excludes the revaluation of assets that will be securedthe State Comptroller General ordered and that non-compliance would cause harm to the State, as the premium value of $50 million in 2020 is now increasing to nearly $100 million without technical support”.

Latina Seguros clarifies participation in Petroecuador’s policies and that it has no connection with those appearing in the condemned videos

quoted authorship carried out by the controller on the contracting of insurance policies in Petroecuador and that in the findings the subject found that the existence of technical studies was not verified, the analysis of risk assessment and accident rate was not included, nor was there a value list of the goods to be insured, among other points.

In addition, Gómez noted that the watchdog made several recommendations for public company compliance before the new underwriting and reinsurance processes began. To have estimated stocks of goods to be insured, as well as technical support for determining the insurable value with sub-limits and deductibles, among others.

After evaluating the prosecutor’s arguments, Judge Rodríguez accepted the precautionary measures and ordered Petroecuador to suspend the ongoing bidding process and recommended that the bid be declared invalid, “because They did not evaluate the goods to be insuredwhich enables all insurers in the country who meet the conditions to participate in this tender.”

He also ordered a proper determination of the property status of the bidder.

EL UNIVERSO asked Petroecuador how the contract could be awarded to the insurer La Unión if Judge Yaguachi ordered the suspension of the process. A response from the public company is expected.

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