“We stand committed to hiring a consortium that meets all technical requirements and provides the best value for the project. We are honored and pleased to receive submissions from leading firms in the industry and we will start reviewing the proposals immediately," he said. The ACP expects the evaluation process to last until June.
A group of 40 local and internal experts will review the technical proposals while the envelopes containing the price proposals, including the ACP owner’s price, were locked in a vault at Panama’s National Bank and will not be opened until the technical evaluations are completed. The results will be counted and disclosed in a public forum during which the ACP will award the winner of the contract, which may represent over half of the $5.25Bn total cost of the expansion. The contract will be awarded on “best value" – 55% for the technical aspect and 45% for the bid price.