The Tourism Authority will publish a new specification after the initial tender was declared void because the only bidders belonged to the same conglomerate. The evaluation committee appointed by the Tourism Authority of Panama (ATP) has annulled the act of tendering design services and production of an advertising campaign, development of media plans, patterns in traditional and digital media and media monitoring in Panama. The tender for the amount of $5 million was declared void and in the coming days a new specification will be published, reported the ATP to the newspaper La Prensa.

See: “Panama: Problems in Tender to Promote Tourism”

Prensa.com reports that the commission “… decided to annul the act because the two companies that participated were from the same advertising conglomerate. The companies are P4 Ogilvy and consortium Turi 1617 composed of Cerebro Y & R and Nexos Grey, which are part of the company Star Holding. The three companies have the same legal representative, share several members on their boards and 70% belong to the same conglomorate. ”

See: “Panama: $5 million Tourism Tender Postponed”

“… Spokespersons for Star Holding indicated that the three companies operate independently and have their own goals, which, in his opinion, means they could participate in the same tender. In addition to the proposals, R Publicidad/BBDO, BMM Publicidad and Starcom BBM had shown interest in bidding in the tender, but ultimately failed to materialize their intentions. “