The Senate is tightening security but without inviting tenders and with a lack of transparency, the newspaper El Financiero reported.

The Senate’s administrative director has arranged to purchase security cameras for the legislature from a company without an invitation for tenders.

Mauricio Farah Gebara said he awarded contracts worth 134 million pesos (US $6.8 million) to Grupo IDSEC without a public invitation for tenders for security reasons, citing the urgent need to protect the “the integrity of goods and persons” within the Senate chambers and the Chamber of Deputies.

The contract for the installation of 600 security cameras in the Senate was awarded directly to the company and signed on June 1. Under the conditions of the contract, the company will provide service for five years, for which the senate paid a 30% advance.

The signing of a contract may have been hastened after a parcel bomb exploded in Senator Citlalli Hernández’s office on May 29. After the attack, Ricardo Monreal, president of the committee for political coordination, called for increased security measures within the legislature.

In both cases, Gebara insisted that he had the right to directly award the contract without tenders because of the urgent need to improve security in the legislature. But El Financiero said he has maintained “an opaque relationship” with the supplier.

In the last two years, Gebara has signed contracts without tenders worth 134.68 million pesos to the same company.

Source: El Financiero (sp)