The president expressed it when talking about the agreements signed in 2018 by the administration of then President Mauricio Macri.
The President made the announcement from the Casa Rosada, together with the Minister of Public Works, Gabriel Katopodis, who was commissioned to manage the nullity of the contracts before the federal administrative jurisdiction. Today’s decree bears the signature of the President, Minister Katopodis, and the Chief of Staff, Juan Manzur.
The detail of the decree
Article 1 states: “Declared harmful to the general interest, by virtue of the existence of serious vices that affect their legitimacy, Decrees No. 607 and 608 of July 2, 2018, respectively, approving the Comprehensive Agreements of Contractual Renegotiation of the Northern Access and Western Access Concession Contracts to the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, by virtue of what is stated in the recital of this measure”.
In addition, the norm instructs National Roads to “file, through its dependent bodies, the pertinent action of lesividad in order to obtain the judicial declaration of nullity of the acts cited in article 1”.
Likewise, it communicates the decision to the Anti-Corruption Office, the Administrative Investigations Prosecutor’s Office, the Treasury Prosecutor’s Office, the Nation’s General Audit Office, the Nation’s General Syndicate, the Ministry of Economy, Public Works and the National Directorate. of Highway.
Thus, the President orders legal action to nullify the concession contracts for the highways of the North and West accesses to the companies Autopistas Del Sol SA (Ausol) and Grupo Concesionario del Oeste (GCO), respectively.
According to the contracts signed at the time of Macri, and as requested by the companies, in some toll stations 1,830 pesos should be paid if the Government had not acted months ago to establish the values.
In addition, yesterday Fernández anticipated that the lawsuit that the State will present in Justice for the concession of the North and West access highways “will surely be presented as evidence” in federal criminal justice, “where these contracts are investigated in the so-called cause Tolls”, in which the renegotiation of contracts for the concession of highways during the Government of Cambiemos is investigated.
“We have to put a turning point and no longer allow people to be on both sides of the counter,” said the head of state.
“We are here as public servants to defend the interests of the State and of the people; for this reason we are asking the Justice to annul these contracts and to cautiously return the administration of these roads to prevent us from perfecting what are clearly contracts. leonines to the detriment of the State,” he added.
Along these lines, he reaffirmed that “the best State is the State that is not stupid, it is the one that takes care of everyone’s assets, it is the one that does not give advantages and allows someone to earn a lot to the detriment of, in this case, the users of these highways.
“What we are going to demand is that these things stop happening once and for all in the Argentine State,” he concluded.
presentation to justice
The portfolio led by Katopodis will appear in court to declare the “harmful and nullity” of the concession contracts to Ausol SA, warning that this negotiation carried out by the Mauricio Macri administration was made “to the measure of the companies “.
“There was a toll deal that is scandalous and for which the President has instructed me to initiate legal action in the federal contentious administrative courts”stated the minister, and maintained that there was “no justification or parameter” to consolidate the debt in favor of the concession companies.
“In the course of 2018, the Macri government issued two decrees, 608 and 607, to renegotiate the concession and award contracts for these road corridors, with a set of actions that, after a thorough analysis, we established as ‘ of vice’ and that determine the absolute nullity”, he outlined as the decree recalls today.
The purpose of those regulations was the cancellation of a presumed debt for an amount by the National State of US$ 813,143,839.52 (US$ 540,522,269.52 for Ausol and US$ 272,621,570 for GCO).
Katopodis warned that Macri “granted a dollarization to the contract” of the highways without there being “any component that justifies” that measure, and referred that “an annual adjustment of 8% was determined, which allowed both companies to have an extraordinary profitability”.
“In any business or concession contract of this type, of course there is no guaranteed return and there is business risk, but here they were granted a privilege with a return in dollars updated at 8% per year”raised the official.
And he pointed out: “We have clearly identified that throughout this entire process what existed were officials who held managerial positions in the concessionaire companies, who later held very important hierarchical positions in National Highways and who later returned to those companies,” that ” Ultimately, what was done was to transform a concession contract into a simple signature promissory note”.
In 2018, the concessionaires Autopistas Del Sol SA and GCO signed agreements with the previous government that “committed” the State, with a total economic impact for users of almost US$2,000,000,000, the Government reported.
In order to comply with the payment obligation included in the signed agreements, and according to the rate update request submitted by AUSOL and GCO in May 2022, the rate should increase, on average, 20 times in the North Access and more than 10 in the North Access. West.
Thus, at the ” Debenedetti ” and ” Márquez ” stations, of the North Access, currently a car pays $80 pesos manually during rush hour, a rate that was set by National Roads in February of this year. According to the request presented by AUSOL, this fee should be 1,830 pesos.
Source: Ambito
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