| Work Detail |
It was a request from some leaders regarding projects considered urgent with a high degree of progress. Two of them will make a request to the Executive and two others are analyzing it.
The Government included an article in the Bases Law to be able to transfer works from public companies that seek to be privatized to the provinces. As TN learned, it was a request from some governors for projects considered urgent - such as roads, sewers and prisons - with a high degree of progress.
The detail is found in article 7 of chapter II, which proposes: "To proceed with the privatization of such companies and societies, the transfer to the provinces of contracts that are in execution may be considered."
This would allow governors to use their accounts or a Public-Private Participation (PPP) scheme to finish the development of works started by public companies, such as, for example, Corredores Viales y Agua y Saneamientos Argentinos (AYSA).
The provincial leaders who will make a request to the Government are Maximiliano Pullaro (Santa Fe) and Ignacio Torres (Chubut), while Leandro Zdero (Chaco) and Gustavo Sáenz (Salta) would be analyzing it.
In the case of Santa Fe, there are road works under the spotlight, such as the maintenance of the Rosario-Santa Fe and Crespo-Avellaneda section of Route 11 and the recovery of routes on Route 178. They are also considering projects such as defenses Los Amores and San Javier, along with the readjustment of the second section of the Paraná line canal and the completion of the Gran Rosario aqueduct, along with the Santa Fe water treatment plant, which has a debt of $95,000,000.
The Coronda Federal Penitentiary Center is on the same list, which advanced only 25.68% and has a total estimated cost of $4,107,517,550. The president wants the prison to be transferred to the province and used for high-profile prisoners, but the Governments intention is for it to remain federal.
Chubut has works such as the conservation of the Rawson section of route 3, which has a progress of 64.32% and an estimated cost of $1,079,096,778, and the repair of the section between Las Plumas and Paso de los Indios of the route 25, which advanced 67% and costs $2,191,913,836.
Salta has projects such as the repaving of the route that passes through the Joaquín Gonzáles city of Route 16, which was 48.32% developed and has a budget of $1,732,473,258, and the construction of sewer and pavement of the section between Molinos and Vallecito on route 40, which has a cost of $3,592,088,449 and advanced 71.07%.
The transfer of the work implies that the company is subject to privatization. If the Base Law is approved, the Government must present to the bicameral Privatization Monitoring Commission (created by Article 14 of Law No. 23,696) a report on the status of the companies and the details of the forms under which proposes privatizing them.
According to article 13 of the project, the General Audit Office of the Nation must carry out an examination regarding the privatization process of each of the companies, evaluating compliance with legal and financial aspects. The next point proposes that the General Audit Office of the Nation prepare a comprehensive report on the public company in question, containing its patrimonial, economic, financial and operational aspects.
The Executive supports that the leaders take financial responsibility for the works that they believe are urgent, but maintains that "the governors somehow always end up passing the bill." That is why the Minister of the Interior, Guillermo Francos, offered them to finish some works carried out by the National Water and Sanitation Works Entity (ENOHSA) with a part of the tax collection for an Inclusive and Solidarity Argentina (PAIS).
After the departure of Guillermo Ferraro from the former Ministry of Infrastructure, the Minister of Economy, Luis “Toto” Caputo, was left with the departments related to Public Works, which had been stopped since Javier Milei took office. |
