MIAMI 19 DE MAYO DE 2020, — Even the Miami Dade County commission is grappling with the contract for the installation of so-called smart traffic lights, where two companies tendered, and after an investigation by an independent agency, found that both the bidding process had been arbitrarily and illegal as it favored foreign company Siemens.
However, Mayor Carlos Giménez’s administration wanted to give Siemen the contract even though it has violated the Laws of Corrupt Practices abroad and was fined more than $800 million over the past 20 years.
At the same time, most members of the county’s major Public Policy Committee voted to reject the smart traffic light tender proposals in Miami Dade County for, among other things, “irregularities detected in the proposal of the foreign company Siemens.
Siemens’ kicking is so much that they are now using every possible method to confuse both the population and public officials who will be reviewing this contract tomorrow.
Now Giménez really wants to hold on and support the foreign company Siemens and will ask the commission to approve the contract at tomorrow’s Tuesday meeting, even though some commissioners have urged him at a committee meeting in early May to reject all past proposals, and start a new bidding process and return in 45 days with the new offers.
Commissioners who want to turn a new tender argue that the savings are too good to be true and the process was vitiated by technical change after negotiations with the top-tier company began.
At stake they will be just over $80 million as it is the difference between the German company Siemens, which offered $152 million to install about 2,800 traffic lights and the company that came second, Horsepower Electric which is a local company.
Commissioner Joe Martinez as well as Commission President Audrey Edmonson and Commissioner Rebeca Sosa want to let Horsepower Electric have another chance to bid, and start from scratch after Moss said she could count on him.
Although Giménez told the commissioners at the last Board of Commissioners meeting that he would look for new proposals, he said he expected Siemens to stay at the same price, he wanted to see what the offer the other companies were bringing because that’s going to be very interesting.
In the past the same mayor Carlos Giménez has recommended others foreign companies that have offered a lower figure than the locals, however after they take possession of the contract, and after a few months, they return to the commission asking for a change of the initial price since they cannot perform the work for the original price, that is a strategy that the lobbyists tell their customers , so the commissioners have to be very attentive, and keep an eye on the very cheap offers, these are not reliable.
