Ministry of Tourism creates an Observatory of Good Practices for infrastructure works

SANTO DOMINGO.- In an act headed by the Republic President, Luis Abinader Corona, as head of the Tourism Cabinet, the Ministry of Tourism presented the Observatory of Good Practices, which will be a oversight organ in the processes of bidding of the works to be developed by Tourism Infrastructure Execution Committee (CEIZTUR).

The fundamental objective of the Observatory is to guarantee unrestricted compliance with Law 340-06, on Purchases and Hiring of Goods, Services and Works, and also to achieve technological innovation and collaboration of Dominican academies in a public-private alliance for best practices.

During the presentation of the Observatory, the Minister of Tourism David Collado assured that this program is one of the most beautiful projects that has been carried out to date, and that with it a reaffirmation of the Government's commitment to transparency is made.

"Since we arrived at the Ministry of Tourism, we have implemented President Abinader's vision of a transparent administration that is close to the communities, and this observatory will incorporate the best practices into the bidding processes to select and ensure quality and optimal delivery times," Collado said

On his side, Abinader Corona considered as a “very correct initiative” the creation of an Observatory of Good Practices by MITUR and valued having involved the academy in the oversight of its purchasing and contracting processes. "In the same way that these young people help the government to guarantee transparency, they train themselves and acquire what we need in the country, a culture of transparency and honesty," said the president, who specified that all controls that the Government can have, the greatest is that of civil society through academia.

The observatory will be made up of the Universities that are part of the University Network for the Advancement of Dominican Education (RUNED), the General Directorate of Ethics and Government Integrity, the National Association of Hotels and Tourism (ASONAHORES), representatives of the tourism sector and the Evangelical and Adventist churches.

As explained, this observatory will also have a digital platform through which anyone can access the bidding process to verify its status, as well as to be able to contribute ideas or suggestions for works or infrastructure solutions that are needed in the community.

It was also indicated that the hotel clusters and associations of the destinations where the works will be carried out by CEIZTUR will be invited to participate in the Observatory of Good Practices as observers in each of the bidding processes that correspond to the destinations they represent.

The signatory universities of the Observatory by RUNED are: the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC), the Universidad Acción Pro Educación y Cultura (UNAPEC), the Universidad Iberoamericana (UNIBE), the Universidad Pedro Henríquez Ureña (UNPHU) and the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM).

in the meeting, Julio Sanchez Marinez, rector of INTEC, coordinator of the RUNED and designated coordinator of the recently created Observatory of Good Practices, valued that MITUR and CEIZTUR have shown openness and frankness before the commission of overseers appointed to supervise their public procurement and contracting processes and, in addition, welcomed the inclusion of students from the five universities that make up RUNED as observers of the process execution of infrastructure works.

Within the mechanisms and platforms that the Observatory will use, the integration of engineering and architecture students in the budget, location and evaluation processes is proposed.

Demonstrated Actions

Meanwhile, Vice-rector for Administration and Finance of INTEC, Alliet OrtegaWho coordinates la commission presented the progress to date, and indicated that "based on the memorandum signed in June 2021, the Ministry of Tourism and the five universities that make up RUNED created a commission in which a member from each university participated and we were present at the purchasing processes carried out by CEIZTUR. Through planning, the commission has worked on complete access to information and has participated in 32 purchasing and contracting processes to date”.

Ortega pointed out that the scope of the oversight includes all the mandatory stages of the purchasing and contracting process, which include planning, preparation, call, award, preparation and opening of bidders, instructions to bidders, contract improvement, contract management and payment. . He said that, during 2021, the RUNED inspectors saw 22 processes, of which 17 have been awarded and contracted, works that are currently underway; four processes are in desert status, but are in the relaunch stage after their technical validation with the Department of Public Procurement and Contracting, and there is one process with status of not published, but it is ready to be uploaded after the analysis of a technical part .

Likewise, the INTEC academic specified that so far in 2022 the oversight commission has seen ten processes, of which two have been awarded and contracted, and seven are in the process of the phase prior to the award.

Likewise, he cited that all this information is published both in the public procurement transactional portal and in the MITUR portal, as a guarantee of the transparency with which these processes have been handled, in compliance with Law 340-06, and as part of the purpose of the Good Practices Observatory.