The state mining company
Yacimientos Carboníferos Río Turbio
(YCRT) is in deficit.
Until then there would not be much news, since there are dozens of state companies that lose plant.
But according to this year's budget, Río Turbio's operating income will be 3,200 million, although the firm needs 20,000 million.
Of those funds,
18,000 million pesos
are needed to pay
salaries.
The total deficit would then rise to 84%.
Thus, YCRT contributes to the mega deficit of public companies, which in 2022 exceeded -as
Clarín
reported- 5,600 million pesos
.
The radical deputy Jimena Latorre, who spoke in the mining commission of Congress, described the equation as
an "administrative aberration."
The numbers of the 2023 budget expose the deficit of a company that is far from fulfilling the energy promise that Kirchnerism ensured.
According to the official detail for the current year, YCRT will have operating income of 3,200 million pesos.
The problem is that the remunerations, that is, the salaries, will be 18,000 million pesos.
The numbers do not close.
The company's current expenses will be 20,500 million and most will be contributed by the State.
The
budget specifies that the income of the coal company in 2023 will be
19,899 million pesos
, of which 16,700 million pesos are contributions from the National Treasury, the company is not self-sustaining and most of its income is used to pay of wages.
This was admitted by its own controller,
Germán Arribas
, who upon taking office in 2022 said: "YCRT must generate income to break economic dependence on the National State."
Clarín
contacted the YCRT controller, who decided not to make
any statement
about the company's deficit values.
The mining company has
2,266 workers
,
one hundred more than it declared at the beginning of last year.
This mass of employees is the one that takes 18 of the 20 billion pesos of the budget contemplated for the course of this year, which
reduces any possibility of investment
to have a company with greater operating results.
But there is another way of looking at it: the National Treasury will contribute 16,700 million, that number
will not even be enough to cover salaries.
With a simple arithmetic account, and taking into account the Christmas bonus
, the average salary of each worker exceeds 611,000 pesos.
Located southwest of Río Gallegos, YCRT links two mining towns in Santa Cruz: Río Turbio and 28 de Noviembre, a historic Kirchnerist stronghold - a tradition that was broken in the last midterm elections.
The coal-producing company is postulated as another of the many links in energy matters that is far from meeting the goals set.
The company was surrounded by allegations of corruption, which, for example,
caused Julio De Vido
to be imprisoned in the Chamber of Deputies, accused of having diverted more than 176 million pesos from the budget for one of his projects.
Or the statement of the driver
Oscar Centeno
before the Spanish court, which accuses the company of that country
Isolux Corsán
for paying
bribes to officials K
during the construction of the thermoelectric plant planned to generate electricity with coal from Río Turbio.
This plant, which is also under the orbit of YCRT, is a historic Kirchnerist promise, according to which, when it is finished, it should add 240 megawatts to the National Interconnected System.
Aníbal Fernández
, who was the comptroller of the company until he took office as Minister of Security, maintained that
the current management will conclude the energy work.
That hasn't happened yet.
Other figures expose the situation of the company intervened by the State.
In January 2022, it produced 2,346 tons of coal, the following month 5,516 and in March they recorded 6,319 tons, according to a request for access to information made by Clarín less than a year ago.
This production is absolutely far from the
112,320 tons per month
that must be extracted to feed the Plant that this management promises to finish.
Just 5%.
The deputy Latorre, who exposed the deficit situation of YCRT in the Mining commission, told this medium: "The numbers are eloquent, it has
not produced for three years
, in 2022 it received contributions from the treasury for 14,000 million and from labor that employs mining according to the production minister of Santa Cruz herself, YCRT employees represent a third. It's all a big lie."
Business plan and suspicions of corruption
Former President Cristina Kirchner, on September 4, 2015, together with the former Minister of Planning, Julio De Vido, in the act in which the Río Turbio power plant was turned on.
It was immediately turned off because it was unfinished.
So it goes.
Among the company's objectives is the completion of Module I and Module II of the Río Turbio “14 Mineros” Thermoelectric Power Plant, of 240MW for the provision of energy to the country”.
The huge contract to build the plant was - and continues to be - riddled with suspicions and complaints.
To begin with, it was awarded to a joint venture led by the Spanish company Isolux Corsán for $857,341,128. "However, as a result of the variations and subsequent contracts awarded to the company within the framework of the same bidding process, the new contract value rose to 1,726,251,982 dollars”, explained an official expertise incorporated into the judicial case that investigated De Vido, the former head of YCRT and other former officials and participants in that process.
That figure would also fall short: to date, among other tenders and work plans,
more than 1,900 million dollars have already been spent
, and what will still be invested in finishing it is still missing.
Clarín
made a request for access to information to the mining firm.
When asked about how much it will cost to finish the Plant, it was pointed out that
it will require a little more than 70 million dollars.
Conclusion: the plant
will have cost between two and three times
what was originally budgeted.
look also
Private banks have 127% more government bonds in their portfolios
