Despite The Breach of the Concessionaire, the CNRT Continues Without Sanctioning the Irregularities of the Retiro Terminal
From excessive prices at kiosks, bars and confectioneries, to lack of vigilance in the taxi area, the agency that controls the operation of the property does not enforce the obligations contained in the concession contract. According to the AGN, these shortcomings were already recorded in two reports of 1997 and 2004, and merited the rescission of the bond that TEBA S.A. Signed with the State in 1993. However, the agreement was extended until 2015, which evidences a "lack of knowledge of the historical behavior" of the provider.
Two reports from the National Audit Office (AGN, for its acronym in Spanish), from 1997 and 2004, had detected "successive and repeated" irregularities of the company TEBA S.A. In the administration of the Retirement Bus Terminal that "configured objective causes" to rescind the concession contract that it signed with the National State in 1993. However, the agreement, which expired on September 29, 2005, was extended until 2015 and, according to the AGN, that expansion "implied an incorrect weighting of the performance of the concessionaire and a lack of knowledge of its historical behavior."
However, a recent study by the AGN in 2008 indicates that the National Commission for Transport Regulation (CNRT), the body that controls the operation of the terminal, "still does not sanction the non-compliances that were verified in the previous reviews," And punctuates excessive prices in the kiosks, bars and confectioneries of the farm, where a pack of pills, which outside Retiro costs $ 1.25, at the station is worth more than $ 2, and a cut can leave up to $ 6, 50.
In addition, the company still does not monitor the area of taxi stands, nor put into operation a system of cars and porters, as required by the contract. On the other hand, it also did not install day care centers, exchange offices, post offices, or "all the services specified for the service stations", says the AGN and adds: "The constant non-compliant behavior of the concessionaire throughout the provision of the service."
In the first years of concession, the company registered arrears in the payment of the monthly fee to the State and in the execution and completion of the works that it undertook to do. Currently, the TEBA S.A. pays $ 100,000 per month of canon. In the long weekends leave from Retiro more than 2000 groups per day with an average of 30 seats occupied each one.
The Audit also analyzed the details of the extension of the concession contract. In the new agreement, TEBA requested the extension of its corporate purpose, that is to say, what was constituted as a company, arguing that the restrictions on its activity prevented it "from extending its proven management experience." This request was approved despite the fact that the Ministry of Transport had said that the exclusivity of the corporate purpose was a requirement of "the majority of tenders", which sought "to avoid the concentration of private companies in those services whose deconcentration was intended to achieve."
According to the AGN, the extension of the corporate purpose "would enable a vertical integration in the operation" of the service and that "the same company, in addition, can extend its activity to other areas by a hypothetical concentration."
On the other hand, the renegotiation process of the terminal contract did not include mechanisms for public consultation that, although not mandatory from the legal point of view, would have ensured transparency and publicity of public acts and was "commendable due to compromised interests" completed the audit.