The owner of Cyber Robotics Solutions, a high-tech medical equipment company, has denied a report that his company sold over-priced ventilators to the Social Security Institute (IMSS) and that he benefited from the fact that his father, Manuel Bartlett Díaz, is the director of the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE).
On April 17, the company, owned by León Manuel Bartlett Álvarez, was awarded a contract worth 31 million pesos, around US $1.3 million, to provide 20 ventilators to IMSS. Each cost the health service 1.55 million pesos or US $65,000.
According to an investigation by Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI), Bartlett’s ventilators came in at 85% more expensive than the cheapest models previously purchased by the government.
In an interview on Milenio Television on Monday, Bartlett explained that there are different calibers of ventilators, some more expensive than his. He emphasized that his company complied with the terms of the contract and the ventilators are now being used to keep patients alive.
“They are not overpriced,” he insisted. “This is the market price given the situation and the urgency of the pandemic.”
Bartlett was adamant that he received no help from his father in winning the contracts. “I am 43 years old, I have been working since before I was 20 years old, always independent of my father,” Bartlett said. “My father has never helped me, you can ask anyone you like. I have never received any favors because of him.”
The ventilator purchase was revealed Sunday in a report by journalist Carlos Loret de Mola, who also wrote that Cyber Robotics has been awarded at least seven government contracts worth 162 million pesos.
Source: Milenio (sp)
