Hector Gambini
08/05/2021 19:59
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 08/05/2021 20:04
The Taiwanese businessman who went to Olivos as a companion to the model and presidential advisor Sofía Pacchi won at least 21 contracts as a supplier to the National State.
What is remarkable is how the productivity of his company increased as a State contractor
after his first visit to the Quinta Presidencial
: one contract is from 2018, another from 2019 and,
the remaining 19, from 2020 and 2021
.
The latter were obtained with agencies that depend on the National State and are
after
the meeting of Chien Chia Hong with the Head of State, Alberto Fernández, on April 2, 2020. That day, the President's birthday, the Taiwanese businessman arrived in Olivos at 22 and he retired at 2:58 the next morning. He was there
longer
than Pacchi, his alleged partner, who arrived with him at ten at night but left almost three hours earlier, at 0.11.
The detailed information of the contracts of the National State awarded to
Apache Solutions
, Hong's company, is in a form that circulates through official offices since the visits of Pacchi and other people to Olivos were known last year, when a
quarantine was in force. strictly
and only personnel considered essential could leave their homes.
The worksheet, accessed by
Clarín
, details each service provided by
Apache Solutions
-identified under CUIT 30-71602082-3- in the
19 contracts it has won since Hong met with Fernández
.
They belong to six different bodies of the National State: the
National Atomic Energy Commission
(three contracts), the
Ministry of Defense
(one contract), the
Ministry of Security
(one contract), the
Transportation Security Board
(two contracts), the
National Parks Administration
(one contract) and the
Army General Staff
(11 contracts). The Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces is President Alberto Fernández.
Although the spreadsheet does not detail the amounts, a minimum calculation based on the awarding system of each contract allows us to assume that the Taiwanese businessman's turnover was
at least 120 million pesos in just one year
.
The details of this estimate are explained later.
Before her first visit to Olivos, Chien Chia Hong - who founded her security technology company in 2018 -
had only obtained two contracts with the National State in two years
.
One on November 20, 2018, with an area of the Ministry of Culture, and another on March 20, 2019, with the Bariloche Atomic Center.
On both occasions, he provided closed circuits for security cameras.
But after his meeting with the President, he obtained
19 new awards in just one year
: 10 contracts in less than five months during 2020 (between June 26 and November 5) and nine more contracts this year, between January 22 (Ministry of Defense) and on July 15, when it offered the Ministry of Security
"100 bullet-type monitoring cameras"
with their corresponding supports.
The speed of his benefits to the state increased this year, and the Taiwanese businessman began winning tenders at a rate of
two in the same week
.
It was successful on May 19 and 21 (two contracts for the Army that it won in a private bid to install
“safety nets”
and
“electronic security system kits”
);
on June 22 and 25 (again
"security systems"
for the Army and
"three access control systems"
for the Transportation Security Board), and on July 8 and 15,
just 20 days ago.
Sofía Pacchi, President Alberto Fernández, First Lady Fabiola Yañez and Taiwanese businessman Chien Chia Hong.
The contract for the 8th is for
"equipment for the elaboration of teleinformatics networks of the SUCOFE of the Argentine Army"
.
SUCOFE is the Army's Fixed Communications Subsystem, an encrypted communication system only enabled for some specific military areas, such as Intelligence.
Hong registered his company as a state supplier in 2018. The businessman went to Alberto Fernández's inauguration party in December 2019 and since then his businesses have flourished.
In the sector of suppliers, manufacturers and importers of high-tech security equipment they do not know it.
"We found out about his existence because of this media issue. We had not heard of him, nor did he compete against us in any tender for the sector
,"
one of the businessmen who work as suppliers of the Argentine state in security and surveillance equipment
told
Clarín
.
It is possible that they did not compose against him before the offer of some official organizations, because there he had
direct hires
.
For example, in the National Atomic Energy Commission, where it provided from thermal cameras to detect fever in real time to video storage systems.
All for the Ezeiza Atomic Center and
without competing with other companies.
Chien Chia Hong gained notoriety after the dissemination of the photos in which he is seen with his partner Pacchi, the first lady Fabiola Yañez and President Alberto Fernández, both at the inauguration ceremony on December 10, 2019 and at the party of last year's presidential birthday.
On the website of your
Apache Solutions
company
, the municipalities of San Isidro, Tandil and Campana appear as clients of its security supplies services;
the Ministry of Government and Justice of Entre Ríos;
the courts of Orán, in Salta, and the municipality of Concepción del Uruguay.
Also the Municipality of Córdoba, Argentine Airports 2000, the Buenos Aires Court and the Comodoro Py courts, but with the National State, only three contracts with the Army had transcended for more than 6 million pesos, as
Clarín
announced
this Wednesday.
However, the forms that circulate through official offices describe another eight contracts with the Army and ten more with other national agencies.
These worksheets do not show the amounts of each contract, although it does detail how the award came to
Apache Solutions
.
Four were by direct contracting, four by public bidding, and
eleven by private bidding
(when the State makes a price check between companies that it previously selects, without opening the specifications to the public).
Chien Chia Hong has managed to get her company to enter that privileged circle - the bidders of a private tender compete
by choice of the buyer
without that business opportunity being publicly announced - since she began accompanying the model Sofía Pacchi to Olivos.
In the official records there are more than 70 visits by Pacchi to the Presidential Palace during 2020. After fulfilling functions exclusively for Fabiola Yáñez, she is now a permanent employee of the General Secretariat of the Presidency in charge of Julio Vitobello, one of the men of the intimate circle of President Alberto Fernández.
According to the National Administration's Contracting Regime,
direct contracting
is used
for operations of
up to 4 million pesos
;
private tenders
for purchases of
between 4 and 18 million
and
public tenders
for
more than 18 million pesos.
Taking the lowest possible value for each operation, the contracts that benefited Chien Chia Hong would total
at least 120 million pesos:
four contracts of 1 million (the basis of direct contracting), four of 18 million each - the minimum of the public bidding- and eleven other contracts of 4 million each, the minimum of the private bidding.
In a year, it is
10 million pesos per month, at least.
After his last contracts in 2020 - two awards were approved by the Argentine Army on the same Thursday, November 5 (two different contracts to provide, install and maintain security cameras in the General Staff) -, the Taiwanese businessman returned to Olivos
on Wednesday, November 11. November, at three in the afternoon.
He left at seven.
There he coincided with the then Minister of Transportation of the Nation, Mario Meoni, who according to the official records of the Military House entered Olivos at 3:45 p.m. and left at 5:05 p.m.
A few months later, Chien Chia Hong
won two bids for the Transportation Safety Board,
which depends precisely on the Ministry of Transportation of the Nation.
The first contract was awarded on April 5 of this year:
"Acquisition and implementation of a technological solution for floors 1 to 3 of the headquarters of the Security Board,"
says the award, without further details.
The headquarters is at 361 Florida Street in the Capital.
On April 23, Minister Meoni died in a traffic accident on Route 7, while traveling to the city of Junín.
The next contract for
Apache Solutions
from the Ministry of Transport was awarded less than two months ago, on June 25, under the management of the new minister, Alexis Guerrera.
It is a service to
"provide, install and put into operation three access control systems"
.
This business, again, Chien Chia Hong agreed through a
private tender
.
Look also
The Taiwanese businessman who was going to see the President with Sofia Pacchi won three Army tenders for more than $ 6 million
From Alberto Fernández to Florencia Peña: who are the nine investigated for visits to Olivos