Thwart procurement fraud

As protests raged in Chile in 2020 over the cost of living and inequality, the government sought to procure body cameras for the police to monitor events on the ground. After going through a public bidding process, U.S. telecommunications equipment provider Motorola Solutions won the business to supply 300 cameras at a cost of close to 400 million Chilean pesos, or about $340 each at today’s exchange rate. Soon thereafter, those involved in the bidding process found themselves under investigation for irregularities. According to the local press, government officials accepted Motorola’s bid even though the company submitted its offer on the electronic procurement portal outside the hours stipulated by the bid rules. (See “El informe de Contraloría que complica a Katherine Martorell, la actual vocera de Sichel, por millonaria compra de cámaras GoPros para Carabineros,” El Mostrador, Oct. 15, 2021.)

In early 2021, the scandal intensified after Chile Compra, the entity that runs the electronic procurement portal — known under its Spanish name Mercado Público — revealed that Motorola’s cameras had failed to meet some basic requirements — namely an ability to keep recording for at least 120 seconds after being turned off.