It is a contract for 67 million dollars that was left for the Horamar Shipping Company.
The state oil company YPF renewed for seven years a questioned tender that it carried out during the government of Mauricio Macri, for the transport of light fuel. It is a contract for 67 million dollars that was left for the Horamar Shipping Company.
According to the portal La política online, in January 2021 the state company that Sergio Affronti directed at that time extended the contract to transport fuel by barge from the refineries to the north of Argentina for five years with an option to two to extend the Paraná River. The contract contemplated the availability of six barges with a capacity of 5,000 cubic meters and two tugboats, with the possibility of incorporating one more.
Doubts about the contract fell on the role of Jorge Metz, who held the Undersecretary of Ports and Waterways, previously served as Horamar’s Maritime Transport manager from 2007 to 2015, when he took over as an official.
But also an internal audit of YPF itself would have warned about the alleged irregularities in the contract. All eyes fell on the directors of YPF, Andrés Marcelo Scarone, then Executive Manager of International Trade when the contract was signed; Santiago Martínez Tanoira, Vice President of Downstream of the oil company, which is in charge of authorizing contracts of more than 10 million dollars and Gonzalo Sebastián Mera Truffini, the former manager of Maritime Insurance.
One of the points that YPF was questioned about was that it went against the provisions of the Naval Industry Promotion Law, because the tanker barges that were to offer the services were going to be built at the Chaco Paraguayan Shipyard and not at the Argentina.
The regulations provide that the Argentine State can only resort to the construction of ships outside the country if it presents a well-founded report before the Naval Industry Advisory Commission. This requirement was not included in the bidding documents, according to the plaintiffs.
It happens that almost 90% of the barges that circulate through the Paraná River are Paraguayan-flagged due to the competitive advantages that the neighboring country has in tax charges that do not exceed 30% when in Argentina that incidence is doubled and the other point is the personnel hiring regimes where in Paraguay there are much more disadvantageous conditions for the workers.
In this way, YPF gave continuity to the contract in favor of Horamar, despite the questions and the lack of clarity about the convenience for the State.
Source: Ambito
