After an intense offer, Impsa was excluded from the works in Yacyretá

Finally, and as planned for some months, the winners of the call for tenders for the works of Aña Cua in Yacyreta are, for the civil party, the Rovella Carranza consortium. The German Voith will take care of the three Kaplan turbines. Only the formal approval of the board of directors of the binational entity Yacyretá remains

In the civil part, the consortium formed by Rovella Carranza, the Italian Astaldi and Paraguayan Tecnoedil will be in charge.

The supply of the three Kaplan turbines, which will increase electricity production by 9%, will be in the hands of the German Voith Hydro.

Both consortia offered the most competitive prices.

The initial budget was about US $ 600 million, but when the envelopes were opened, the fixed values ​​were lower. For turbines, the German Voith received $ 99 million. It left aside Mendoza Impsa, badociated with Power China, which had offered $ 120 million.

The EBY Executive Committee has already agreed to go ahead with the most economical offers and only the formal stage of the Council remains.

The Paraguayan director of Yacyretá, former president of this country, Nicanor Duarte Frutos, said that speculation regarding the call for bids for the Aña Cua arm came from companies that had made pressure and got money to win this award. In addition, he added that even if one of the successful companies had been declared bankrupt, everything was planned and there is no risk.

Duarte Frutos, the current director of the binational Yacyretá (EBY) on the Paraguayan side, explained that the meeting of the directors of the two margins was very important on Tuesday. "The board of directors is the one who legitimizes or not the decisions of the executive committee, the directors of the two margins," he said.

The audio of the interview of the former president:

"We rewarded the most important work: electromechanics, civil works and another important chapter. We now have a cost of 302 million US dollars. Let's hope that tomorrow we can formalize what represents a reduction of $ 233 million compared to the established preferential prices, "he told the ABC newspaper in Asunción.

He said that awarding works of lower cost is still missing. "The 695 tender call number, the supply of transformers, with a reference price of $ 36 million and the call for tenders 722 from the inspection department and control, which has a reference price of $ 19 million, "he said.

Duarte Frutos has also been discussed in the Italian consortium Astaldi SpA, which also includes the companies Rovella Carranza SA of Argentina and Tecnoedil SA of Paraguay, since the beginning of the process of preventive bidding to declare bankruptcy. This company has been awarded for civil works.

In this regard, he replied that all this had happened through the evaluation committee. "Astaldi company respects the provisions of the specifications and conditions. There is no risk of non-compliance because they have a bankruptcy that does not prevent them from continuing to hire and perform work, "he said.

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Regarding the specifications and stated conditions that failed or bankrupt companies can not participate in, he insisted that everything was thoroughly badyzed by the technicians. "Guarantee mechanisms for the correct use of resources have been put in place," he said.

"It turns out that the internal competition is very strong, the other companies that offer offers for 50 million additional dollars have pressed a lot and the other who arrives in third position, 45 million more, but everything was planned" , did he declare.

On the other hand, when asked about the rumor that the company Impregilo proposed to take control of Astaldi, which would be banned, he replied: "This is a hypothesis made by those who press and offer a lot of money so that they win and with me, they will not have it, "he said.

According to him, the pressure began when Yacyretá entrusted Voith Hidro with the execution of electromechanical supplies to Aña Cua and not to Impsa, which it linked to the Argentine government.

"The first major prize was electromechanics, to which several companies participated, but the most important was Impsa, linked to important sectors of power in Argentina, which is a consortium with a large Paraguayan company and entrepreneurs who have at the highest level for Yacyretá management distorted these results, "he repeated.

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"In principle, there were people who wanted to lobby, who wanted to skew the results, in the first part, but it has already happened. Now, the Astaldi theme (…) the selection committee itself is putting a lot of pressure, even in the immediate environment, so that this process is not biased, "he concluded.

Alejandro Takahashi, EBY's CFO, also spoke with ABC Cardinal and reported on the three works already awarded by the Yacyretá Executive: Intertechne Consultores SA, Brazil, for technical badistance and Technical of the amount of 9 USD. , 5000000. The second went to Voith Hydro Ltda, from Germany, for electromechanics, for 99.7 million US dollars and the third to the consortium formed by Astaldi SpA (Italy), Rovella Carranza SA (Argentina) and Tecnoedil SA (Paraguay). civil works amounting to just over 193 million US dollars.

Regarding this latter price, he insisted that Astaldi was not bankrupt. "It is a process called concordat, which, according to experts, is a debt recomposition with the proposed capital contribution from other shareholders, who will benefit from the same. financial aid without going bankrupt, "he said.

With regard to the specifications and conditions under which failed or bankrupt companies can not be rewarded, he pointed to the part that says "in the opinion of the entity". "That is, there is no direct obligation that the company be automatically disqualified, it is a power that allows the entity to badyze, evaluate, request all reports necessary to perform all internal and external consultancy work, "he said.

He also stated that the offer was not only presented by Astaldi; "There are three companies," he repeated and said that these two companies would resume the contract in case of problems. With regard to the forecasts, he stated that all payments made to the consortium will only be protected for use in the works. "I'm not saying it's a normal situation, but we're just trying to protect absolutely all the legal and financial details so that not a single dollar is diverted from work," he said.

Asked about Impregilo's offer to take over Astaldi, he replied: "We understand that there are several packages that want to buy packages of this concordat. Impregilo is a company that also participates, but I have no document to prove it, "he said. . However, he clarified that when the bidding was over "there was no concordat", which indicated that it was impossible to predict it.