08/04/2021 11:30
Clarín.com
Economy
Updated 08/04/2021 11:30
The Government
advances on the concessions
of the accesses to the Capital, in the hands of the firms Autopistas del Sol and the Grupo Concesionario del Oeste, controlled by
the Spanish Abertis.
The Ministry of Public Works in charge of Gabriel Katopodis, which at the beginning of 2020 launched
an audit
to investigate the renegotiation of the contracts signed during the administration of Mauricio Macri, sent the companies
documentation on the process.
According to identical letters that they sent to the Stock Exchange on July 30, both companies were notified about "actions that would have been initiated" by the Public Works portfolio "for the purpose of
reviewing the Comprehensive
Contract
Renegotiation
Agreement of the Concession ", approved by decree 607 and 608 of 2018.
These renegotiations are being prosecuted
for allegations of irregularities, which include the alleged evasion of taxes between 2004 and 2014. In July 2018, the Macri administration renewed these concessions until 2030 and
recognized the firms $ 750 million
for an alleged debt of the State.
The former president had excused himself from intervening in the renegotiation to avoid a conflict of interest.
The Macri Group, through Sideco,
had 23% of the shares of Autopistas del Sol,
which it sold in May 2017.
The concessionaires said that "according to a preliminary analysis of the documentation supplied with the notification, within the framework of these actions
certain objections have been expressed in relation to the legitimacy of the Comprehensive Agreement
, and no decision has been notified to the respect".
Now, both firms have 10 business days to make administrative filings.
And they indicated that they are "analyzing in detail
the antecedents on which a copy was granted
and the courses of action to be followed."
In any case, they have already clarified that "
the objections raised are inadmissible"
and clarified that the renegotiated contracts had the approval of the Executive Power and followed all the norms.
A hint of the "background" mentioned by the companies was recently revealed on C5N's "Green Buds" show, where they released alleged audit data.
There they indicated that the renegotiation theoretically assured the companies
a recovery of the debt in dollars plus 8%
and that the
toll rate ended up being dollarized
, among other points.
The sending of the documentation to the companies comes a week after a project by the pro-government deputy Facundo Moyano (virtual conductor of the tolls union) that proposes to absorb the two concessions under the umbrella of a new company -Autopistas Metropolitanas SA- controlled for Public Works and in which workers would have 7%.
NE
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