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These groups appear as favorites above the RATP-Alstom consortium. Proposals, advantages and influences. Metrodelegates add pressure with new claims. Almost a month after the last extension granted by the Legislature expires and in the midst of increasing versions of a close definition that would be favorable for Metrovías - the current concessionaire that controls -, the prolonged and controversial tender to reprivatize the operation of the subways and the pre meter puts the Buenos Aires administration of Horacio Rodríguez Larreta in the spotlight again. In addition to having to face the political cost of leaving the provision of an essential public service for the city in private hands again, Rodríguez Larreta also has to respond to a new problem that had not been taken into account in the bidding document and that it will imply a greater economic compensation for the future concessionaire: the elimination of asbestos, the carcinogenic material detected in the fleet of cars of lines B and C that the metrodelegates already took to Justice. In the papers, those who are in the race to keep the new subway concession are three consortia: Metrovías, associated with the German railroad; Helport (of the Eurnekian group) together with the operators of the Lyon (Keolis) and London (TFL) subways; and the company formed by RATP (the Paris subway concessionaire) and the French train manufacturer Alstom. However, judging by the indications that have begun to transcend the official side and the recent movements of the bidders, the ones that would most likely reach the final stretch would be the consortiums headed by Roggio and Eurnekian. Moreover, according to those who know the cloth and the interludes of the tender, Metrovías would be taking a key advantage to the Eurnekian UTE in the scores of the background evaluation and technical proposal. That difference would leave the Roggio group better positioned for the second instance of opening economic offers, in which the consortium that submits the lowest proposal must not necessarily win. According to the rules of the game, the selection of the winner will be made through the use of a polynomial formula that takes into account both the qualification of the technical aspects and the economic remuneration requested from the City for the operation and maintenance of the subways. If the economic offers are very even, Roggio would win the pulse for his technical qualification. On the other hand, if the subsidy requested by the Eurnekian group is substantially lower than that of Metrovías, then the victory would remain for the owner of Aeropuertos Argentina 2000. Unlike its competitors, Metrovías has faced the bidding process with a relevant element in its favor. It is the knowledge and experience accumulated in the management and control of the subway throughout 25 years of operation of the service. That factor would explain the fact that its offer was the most voluminous of all with documentation and plans that are not included in the proposals of the opponents. Faced with rumors that he could be relegated, the consortium of Eurnekian, Keolis and TFL went out to deploy a double play to assert their offer. One of the moves was public and was to bring to the country the CEO of Keolis for Latin America, Clement Michel, and the director of International Operations of TFL, Helen Murphy, to leave in the main graphic media explaining the scope and benefits of the plan technical-operative proposed for the subways of Buenos Aires. The other, on the other hand, was quieter and consisted of a lobbying action before the circle closest to the head of the Buenos Aires government in charge of a former member of the AA2000 board who has a direct arrival to the elected president, Alberto Fernández, and who is on his way to be part of your cabinet. This is Rafael Bielsa (the author of the recently presented Lawfare book, judicial-media war, from the first centenary to Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and a possible Cultural Area official). Thus, a series of considerations were sent to the Buenos Aires officials so that they did not overlook the offer of the Eurnekian consortium. Initiated at the beginning of 2018, the tender to reprivatize the concession of the subways accumulates a marked delay in the middle of successive extensions to the contract of the current Metrovías operator, whose original expiration date was December 2017. After the presentation of the offers made in August last year, the local government had announced that before the end of 2018 the winner would be known. But when that time came, the administration of Rodríguez Larreta was forced to manage another extension for Metrovías due to the delays and complications recorded in the evaluation of the background and the technical proposals of the bidders. A new official promise of definition of the winner before PASO also got in the way because of the political ups and downs of macrismo and the worsening economic situation. Now, Everything indicates now that the decision on the new Buenos Aires subway operator would come to light before the end of the year. If the deadlines for local officials are met, the bid evaluation committee (which includes representatives of the City Government, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Urban Development and Transportation and the state-owned SBASE, with the advice of the Metro de Barcelona and the Department of Transportation of the University of San Martín) would announce in the coming days which are the suppliers that qualify with the necessary scores to move to the second instance, the opening of economic offers. If there are no challenges, the economic envelopes would be opened in the second half of December and within a few days the winner would be known. The intention of the Buenos Aires government is to arrive at the end of the year with a new concessionaire already chosen so as not to have to request a new extension to the Legislature. If the winner is Roggio, local officials estimate that the entry into force of the new contract will be implemented quickly and without major complications. Meanwhile, if the concession is for Eurnekian or eventually for the Alstom-RATP company, the transfer of the subway network would require a transition period of not less than 90 days, for which a new contractual extension bounded for Metrovías would be necessary. According to the bidding rules, the new concession will be extended for 15 years, leaving all investments in network expansion, incorporation of escalators and purchases of railway equipment in charge of the whole would indicate that the decision on the new operator would come to light before from December 31. According to the bidding rules, the new concession will be extended for 15 years, leaving all investments in network expansion, incorporation of escalators and purchases of railway equipment by the local government. Unlike the current contract, which dates from 1994, the new operator will not receive a fixed monthly subsidy for the provision of services. It will receive a variable compensation based on the number of kilometers that cover the formations in the framework of minimum and mandatory frequencies that the state-owned SBASE will set. In addition to this disbursement for “kilometer driven car”, the new contract provides a series of awards and economic penalties for the concessionaire that will be tied -among other items- to the quality of service, frequencies, technological improvements, communication to users and station cleaning. Meanwhile, on the trade union side there are two issues that the Buenos Aires government did not take into account in the tender and that are already raising conflicting situations with the Metro Delegates. The first is the problem generated by the presence of asbestos in the cars in service of lines B and C. For the Metrodelegates, the program of “de-over-fertilization” that Metrovías launched and the local government is partial and insufficient. For that reason they began to adopt force measures and took the issue to Justice in order to obtain an amparo that obliges the City to remove all the pieces and equipment with asbestos and to acquire new trains to replace the formations that contain the component carcinogenic. The second issue is related to the economic claim that comes from the end of the employment relationship with Metrovías. The union members of the subway consider that, upon relying on a new concessionaire, with a contract that starts from scratch, workers would have to receive compensation for the change of employer. In that sense, they argue that in the event that it is not recognized by the outgoing company, that payment requirement should fall on the Buenos Aires government, which is the owner of the network and the grantor of the contract for the operation of the services. |
