Peru update: Sanctions against companies that bid with the Peruvian State lifted

As a way of follow up of our article published on 6 October 2021, in which we analysed the sanctions imposed to La Positiva Seguros y Reaseguros and Rímac Seguros y Reaseguros (members of the La Positiva Rímac Consortium) by way of Resolution 02815-2021-TCE-S3 issued by the Third Chamber of the Court of Contracts with the Peruvian State, such sanctions have been recently lifted.

On 7 October 2021, the Fourth Administrative Court of the Superior Court of Justice in Lima granted RIMAC the injunction they requested based, mainly, on the fact that, despite the alleged inconsistence found by SEDAPAL in the dates specified in one of the work certificates that was provided by La Positiva Seguros, still the specific employee complied with the five (5) years of experience requirement of the bid.

As a consequence of the injunction being granted, the effects of the Resolution 02815-2021-TCE-S3 were suspended and RIMAC was temporarily withdraw from the list of companies sanctioned by the Peruvian State Procurement Supervisory Body (OSCE), RIMAC’s registration in the National Registry of Suppliers was restated and RIMAC was required to put a bond in the amount of PEN$500,000 (c.USD126,268) in place.

In addition, on 18 October 2021, the Court of Contracts with the Peruvian State heard the reconsideration remedy filed by La Positiva Seguros and RIMAC and considered the remedy request grounded. Therefore, it declared, ex officio, the Resolution 02815-2021-TCE-S3 partially null, with respect to the sanction imposed to the companies that disable them, for a period of four (4) months, from participating in tenders to contract with the Peruvian State. The remedy was granted based on violations to due process and the Court further ordered the Third Chamber to reinstate the administrative proceeding to the time when the parties are called for a new hearing to exercise their right to due process.

This is definitely good news since both parties will now be able to fully defend their arguments in a new proceeding; however, we will still have to closely follow up on how the new proceeding ends approximately in 6 months from now, when a new decision on this is expected. Since the sanctions ordering the suspension of RIMAC in the National Registry of Suppliers were lifted, both companies are able to keep participating in tenders with the Peruvian State. 

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