The director of OSE for the Broad Front maintained that the government chose “the most expensive path” and that it consists of “mortgaging” the public company.
The director of the National Administration of State Sanitary Works (OSE) on behalf of Broad Front (FA), Edgardo Ortuno, once again criticized Arazati project, recently awarded by the state company, and said that the government of Uruguay he is committing “the mistake of mortgaging a large part of OSE’s job opportunities for the next 20 years.”
Ortuño’s criticism of the Executive Branch for the Arazatí Project —also called Neptune- They are not recent or novel, but on this occasion they came up with the immediate antecedent of the award of the work to the consortium Montevideo waters -formed by Berkes, Saceem, Ciemsa and Fast.
In an interview with Telemundo, the Frente Amplio director considered negative the “priority” that the government gives to this project, which consists of the construction of a new water treatment plant in the spa Arazati, in the department of Saint Joseph; and what will it mean investment of approximately 250 million dollars for the state. Likewise, he pointed out that the Executive chooses the wrong path because “it will have a overrun”.
The excessive numbers that OSE will have to face, according to Ortuño
“By doing not with the public management of OSE but with financing, operation of the water intake and maintenance, all outsourced, this implies that it is 300 million dollars more expensivethan if it were done by the same construction companies, but managed by OSE”, said Ortuño, in this regard.
As explained by the director of the state company, the companies that participated in the tender “proposed five ways to implement this project, and the government chose the most expensive”: “This has a cost per year for OSE of 50 million dollars, which will begin to be paid only in 2026 or 2027; that is to say that the current government solves a million-dollar work, which prevents important works from being carried out, and inherits it from the next government. Are 17 and a half years of these $50 million installmentswhich at the end of the contract will mean 890 million dollars that the OSE will pay”.
This supposes a weakening of the public company which, in addition, will result in the impossibility of carrying out the works necessary to guarantee the supply of drinking water in a future scenario of increasingly extreme weather events. “With the water crisis It became clear that fresh water must be saved, dams built to damm up, in addition to repairing pipes. And it will not be possible to carry out sanitation works that are expected by departments of the interior. This impacts on a higher indebtedness of our public company, which today does not have the resources to face this expense. Or will it impact on rate increase”, Ortuño pointed out.
“There is still an opportunity for the government to correct this path and not commit the mortgage mistake great part of OSE’s job possibilities for the next 20 years. In case of insisting on carrying out the work, that it be done at a lower cost, with public management, which within the framework of a national agreement allows other fundamental works to ensure the supply of drinking water, “added the director in OSE by the Broad Front, in reference to the review that the Court of Accounts and to the instance of parliamentary interpellation that the Arazatí Project must pass to be carried out.
Source: Ambito
