Bernardo Vazquez
01/19/2021 17:56
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 01/19/2021 5:56 PM
The former private secretary of Alejandra Gils Carbó during her time at the Attorney General, and a current official of the Ministry of the Interior led by
Eduardo "Wado" de Pedro
, make up a list of 15 candidates to
occupy three positions in a key judicial court
that will create the Government and whose function is to settle conflicts in
matters of Defense of Competition that exist between companies.
This was confirmed by the Government last week, when it published the candidacies to cover three places in a strategic room that will be part of a decentralized body, called
the Competition Authority
, created by law in 2018 but never launched, which will replace in fact to the current National Commission for the Defense of Competition and which will be in charge, among other functions,
of sanctioning monopolistic practices of companies
, processing complaints of cartelization and
monitoring mergers between companies.
Johanna Cristallo and María Laura Mani
n are the two names that generate the most controversy within a list of 15 candidates to be part of the Chamber, which will be created under the orbit of the Federal Civil and Commercial Chamber.
In the case of Cristallo, 38 years old, she has been working since 2006 in the Procuratorate, although her professional growth occurred mainly during the management of Gils Carbó, from 2012 to 2017, when she became a Legal Secretary, in fact , the private secretary of the former chief prosecutor.
Johanna cristallo
Industry sources acknowledge that Cristallo was an official in constant dialogue with Gils Carbó, although they relativize that it was his "right hand".
In addition, internally within the old structure of the Procuratorate there are differences with Cristallo, who was one of the few officials who continued within the organization chart of the Procuratorate in the current management of Eduardo Casal, the interim chief prosecutor, who assumed the position later of the resignation of Gils Carbó after his prosecution in a case for alleged corruption and severe short-circuits with the Macri government.
Manin, also 38, has been working near Pedro's "Wado" since the change of government, when she became undersecretary of administrative management at the Ministry of the Interior.
If designated as an authority in the Competition Court, it would go directly from a position in the Executive to one under the judicial orbit, but which depends on an endorsement of the Executive that today it integrates.
The final decision on who will make up the Chamber will depend on a jury that includes, among others, the Minister of Productive Development
Matías Kulfas
, and the Treasury Attorney,
Carlos Zannini
, former Secretary of Legal and Technical during the government of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner , and detained during 2018 in the framework of the investigation into the signing of the memorandum of understanding with Iran for the 1994 AMIA attack.
Cristallo and Manin are not the only candidates for the positions to be filled.
They are part of a complementary list, but with chances to fill those spots.
In it are Micaela Figueredo, Gonzalo Auguste, Martín Ataefe and Javier Rodiño.
But there are also three specific shortlists to fill the positions, with candidates of diverse experience.
The first is made up of Diego Povolo, Alejandro Nobili and Juan Rafael Stinco;
the second, Federico Malvarez, Santiago Roca and Humberto Guardia Mendonca;
the third, Silvia Pfarherr, Irina Gedwillo and Javier Barraza.
Carrió's Claim in Justice
The doubts about how the Justice will act in matters of Defense of Competition, but above all, when and how the National Authority of the area will be formed, are issues that concern the opposition, to the point that
Elisa Carrió
, along with other members of the Civic Coalition, claimed by means of an amparo before the Litigation and Administrative jurisdiction.
The text, in addition to that of the former opposition deputy, bears the signature of two national deputies of the space, Maximiliano Ferraro and Juan Manuel López, and the Buenos Aires legislator Hernán Reyes.
Carrió had promoted the creation of the National Competition Authority during Macri's presidency, to the point that the candidates who had been elevated to occupy the five positions, executive and non-judicial, were deactivated by the current government.
In dialogue with
Clarín
, Reyes assures that the law is being "violated" and that the "Government (in the case of the new Chamber)
is creating a Chamber to review the proceedings of a position that is not there
", in reference to the lack of the appointment of the members of the new Authority of the sector.
For Reyes, there is a risk of "going towards a discretionary model", in which decisions on competition matters depend on a court "without sufficient independence."
In the lawsuit filed in the Administrative Litigation forum, the request to return the documents to the Senate or the convening of a new contest for the positions is raised.
And it is specifically wielded that "effective legal compliance is given to Law No. 27,442, which created the National Competition Authority as a decentralized body."
