| Work Detail |
Millionaire investment and change in the work, the intersections between the companies in charge of El Tambolar and EPSE
Through letters, the parties claim that they do not want to move forward with the work, they even threaten to cancel the contract.
The claims between the parties led to the UTE going to court last week with an action that was unsuccessful. According to sources close to the firms, the objective of the letter, a precautionary measure, was to force the province to negotiate the reactivation of the work and cancel an apparent debt. Asked about the proposal, the Secretary General of the Interior, Emilio Achem, although he preferred not to comment on the fact, said that “before taking office, Governor Marcelo Orrego had knowledge and meetings with the UTE, to find out how it was going. the situation". Furthermore, he maintained that “obviously we have to sit down to negotiate and be able to find a point of balance.”
Regarding the documents accessed by this media, it is clear that there is a marked difference between what EPSE and the UTE understand about why the work is stopped. Even though the provincial authorities have publicly indicated that the tasks are slowed down by the million-dollar debt that CAMMESA (Company Administrator of the Wholesale Electricity Market Sociedad Anónima) maintains with the province, this point is not the only one. To the point that, from the state company, in a notarial letter sent on March 27, it was stated that EPSE has made “enormous efforts to give continuity to the work” for which the UTE was ordered to resume the work. under the threat of canceling the contract for non-compliance.
One of those efforts was the transfer of funds, as an advance, of some 800 thousand dollars that arose from an agreement that was signed between the parties on December 29, that is, 19 days after Orreguism took office. in the Executive. The purpose of the contributions was the purchase of specific drilling equipment to waterproof the land where the dam will be built, but, according to the province, the funds had other uses, so there is a "serious contractual breach." Regarding the claim for diversion of funds, the UTE denied it in a presentation it made on February 23 of this year, in which it indicated that the firm that markets these equipment (Terretest Argentina) “has in its possession sums advanced for more than 800 thousand dollars”, but that the device cannot be imported until a Change Order is approved. Said change order is, according to qualified sources, modifications in the execution of the project that, according to the UTE, EPSE has not yet given the OK. Even for construction companies, the current delays, in addition to financing problems, are a result of the state firm not moving forward with the Change Order agreed upon in a timely manner.
In this framework, for the UTE, the lack of OK to the project modifications implies that EPSE is the one that has an “unjustified delay” and “is hindering and delaying the work and intends to blame us for its non-compliance.”
On the other hand, regarding the alleged debt, the companies maintain that it is in their favor because they carried out extra geological tasks because the land where it was decided to carry out the work presented unique difficulties in the world that were not contemplated in the bidding document. Thus, they stated that the drilling machine (a hydromill) was working under these conditions in the construction of the plastic screen until August 2023, when it went out of service. But EPSE ordered that these tasks continue, with another team, which was reflected in service orders dated October 16, 2023, December 4 and December 19. Along these lines, they affirm that the unforeseen tasks have generated “the right to obtain comprehensive compensation” for which, evidently, they seek to have it cancelled.
A key point in the complex scenario of the El Tambolar dam work is the financing by CAMMESA. EPSE has urged the companies to resume the pace of work because it maintains that it is behind schedule to the point that they indicate that “during the 54 months of work that have elapsed, for 48 months” there would have been delays that, in some points, exceeded 20 percent. . The firms indicate that this situation is beyond the companys control because there have been aspects that have impacted the normal development of tasks: such as the pandemic, the change in the design of the screen and problems with imports. But, above all, progress cannot be made today because the project does not have financing, a situation that, they indicate, is the “direct responsibility” of the state company.
Furthermore, they point out that the province is not complying with a key point of the agreement reached with the Ministry of Energy and Mining of the Nation for the financing of the work, in which, in clause No. 5, it establishes that if there is a negative flow of funds from the trust, said difference will be faced by the province. While the Executive has made it clear that, given the national economic crisis, the local State is not in a position to provide resources for the work.
The crossings between the UTE and the province seem to have reached a point of no return and many see that it is a mega project that will require a lot of funds to be reactivated. There are even those who maintain that the current paralysis will be permanent.
Source: https://www.0264noticias.com.ar/ |
