Corrigendum Note Issued by Itsa
14 Feb 2022 | Press Releases
Further to its press release dated January 17th 2022 entitled ‘INTERNATIONAL TAX STAMP ASSOCIATION RAISES CONCERNS OVER ECUADOR’S FISCAL TRACEABILITY MOVE’, the International Tax Stamp Association (ITSA) would like to issue the following corrigendum upon INEXTO’s request:
- In Chile, INEXTO’s partner ATOS Worldline was disqualified for 2 reasons according to the technical evaluation performed by the Chilean Tax Administration (SII): 1) the non-translation of a document requested in order to demonstrate the experience of the bidder in similar governmental projects and; 2) the lack of specifications for the integration between the requested track and trace system and the existing systems of the SII. Therefore, ATOS Worldline was not disqualified because of a conflict of interest. Nevertheless, in its press release, ITSA referred to allegations of conflicts of interest by the Colegio de Médicos, the NGO Chile Libre de Tabaco and the President of the Health Commission of the Senate who were closely following the tender process. Those allegations were reported in local media: Acusan conflictos de intereses en empresas que postulan a fiscalizar industria del tabaco | Nacional | BioBioChile
- In Pakistan, an award by the Federal Board of Revenue to INEXTO’s partner NRTC Consortium was cancelled by a court decision for procedural motives. Therefore, NRTC was not disqualified because of a conflict of interest. Nevertheless, in its press release, ITSA referred to allegations of conflict of interest reported by local and international media and by an investigation of OCCRP: Pakistan Court Scraps Tobacco “Track and Trace” Contract (occrp.org)
- ITSA also clarifies that the CODENTIFY system developed by Philip Morris International (PMI) has not been rebranded as INEXTOR, but was transferred to INEXTO. Concerns about the lack of transparency have been issued by the FCTC Convention Secretariat, who stated that “The industry has developed and promoted its own tracking and tracing mechanism, Codentify or Inexto, that is far less transparent than the tool required by the Protocol” (https://www.who.int/fctc/secretariat/head/statements/2019/First-meeting-of-the-Working-Group-on-tracking-and-tracing-syste/en/ )
ITSA Contact: Juan Carlos Yañez Arenas, Chairman, [email protected]
