CFE Telecom gives a contract for 1,024 million pesos to a non-telecommunications agency

The State telecommunications company directly awarded a contract to the Center for Research and Innovation in Information and Communication Technologies (Infotec), a sectorized entity of the Digital Transformation and Telecommunications Agency, for a value of more than 1,024 million pesosaccording to documents held by Expansión.

The objective of the agreement is to acquire active telecommunications infrastructure. Some inputs are lithium batteries; GPS antennas; Radio Frequency equipment for Telecommunications Base Stations with 5G expansion capacity; cabinets for radio bases to protect telecommunications equipment such as routers, switches and cabling systems, according to tender documents.

The contract will be valid from September 30 of this year to December 31, 2025, however, CFE Telecomunicaciones stipulated in the agreement that “the total delivery period of the goods may not exceed November 30, 2025.” In addition, “deliveries may be made during fiscal year 2024.”

The agreement contemplates two items, that is, the breakdown of the goods to be acquired. The first part corresponds to the delivery of 10,416 of the 14,070 equipment requested by CFE Telecomunicaciones e Internet para Todos. For this stage, Infotec will receive 777 thousand 560,571 million pesos. While in the second phase it will obtain 247 thousand 132.579 million pesos.

Infotec, outside of telecommunications

The main problem with the contract is the nature of the Center for Research and Innovation in Information and Communication Technologies. A source from the sector, who asked not to be named, assured Expansión that Infotec is only dedicated to manufacturing software and does not have the technical capacity to manufacture the inputs requested by CFE Telecomunicaciones and Internet para Todos.

Infotec on its official site – despite having a telecommunications section where it highlights that it designs, implements and operates technologies in the sector – does not offer information about it or links to the equipment it manages for the industry. For example, manufacturers or companies dedicated to supplying telecommunications infrastructure stand out for presenting and detailing the characteristics and specifications of their technologies on their official sites.

“It is possible that Infotec, through personnel outsourcing, something that it has applied since the last administration, subcontracts the provision of inputs to a third party to supply the materials requested by CFE Telecomunicaciones e Internet para Todos, but third-partying the purchase of inputs incurs in large cost overruns,” the source said.

In the award documents, Infotec breaks down unit prices of the inputs, but since it does not have another economic proposal, it is complex to determine whether the prices are in line with those of the industry. However, another source assured Expansión that the costs budgeted by the government agency may be comparable to those of the market, but those referring to lithium batteries are high.

“Although Infotec’s branch is not telecommunications, being a government agency, it has become the technology providing arm for the telecommunications company,” said the source.

This is not the first time that Infotec has won contracts with the state company to supply telecommunications supplies. Two years ago it obtained an agreement to deliver 60,000 local devices for 4G connectivity and 70,000 WiFi6 access point devices. The contract had a duration from January 1 to December 31, 2022, with a minimum total value of 667,463 million pesos.

But the payment for the equipment was made to a bank account different from the one established in the contract, without the execution of a modifying agreement to formalize this change. Added to that 16.2% of the inputs were in a state of safeguard and were not registered, as explained by the Superior Audit of the Federation (ASF) in a report.

In addition, the ASF detected that the price paid by CFE Telecomunicaciones to Infotec was significantly higher than that calculated by the supervisory entity. While the ASF calculated a total of 14,959 million pesos, the company paid Infotec a total of 121,518 million pesos.

The Audit even emphasized that CFE Telecomunicaciones could not demonstrate that Infotec complied with important aspects such as industrial safety, experience in the required tasks, environmental protection and social responsibility; However, the state company maintains its commitment to deliver contracts to the agency, despite the fact that active telecommunications infrastructure is not its branch.

Infotec has become the most expensive provider for CFE Telecomunicaciones and Internet para Todos. Last year alone, the CFE subsidiary paid 4,778 million pesos to this agency, placing itself as the institution to receive the largest amount of money that year, only ahead of Starlink, Elon Musk’s company, according to data obtained by Expansión through transparency.

Experts consulted by this medium have maintained that CFE Telecomunicaciones must ally with the industry or look for alternatives to provide connectivity services to remote areas, since doing so alone and acquiring equipment from companies outside the sector represents a financial risk. The state company lost 8,931 million pesos last year due to higher expenses and costs for the deployment of infrastructure.