A Train Company That Has Not Paid the Royalty Since 1996
It is the one that exploits the freight corridor that runs from Buenos Aires to Mesopotamia. An AGN report revealed that the firm's debt was, as of December 2005, $ 5,640,706. For 12 years, the State has been able to rescind a concession contract in which there is an "alarming lack of management" regarding security and maintenance.
According to a report by the National Audit Office (AGN, for its acronym in Spanish), the concessionaire of the freight corridor that connects Buenos Aires with Entre Ríos, Corrientes and Misiones, did not pay the operating fee 12 and a half years ago. This is the Latin America Logistics Mesopotámica S.A. (All Mesopotamia), which made the last disbursement in September 1996 and, a month later, also stopped depositing the mandatory contributions to the Social Security System (30% of the fee). The controlling body noted that the total debt of the company, up to December 31, 2005, amounted to $ 5,640,706.28.
The concession statement had established a period of "six cumulative monthly installments" as a limit of non-compliance for the rescission of the contract. That is to say that since March 1997 the Government can end the agreement with All Mesopotamia.
But the company not only "comfortably" exceeded that clause, it also increased "systematically since 2002" the tariff regime determined in the contract. However, the AGN pointed out that the investment that the concessionaire had to make "does not reach 10% of the amount committed in the offer."
On the other hand, both parties, the State and All Mesopotamia, also failed to draw up an inventory showing the assets ceded at the beginning of the concession. The Audit added that, in parallel, the firm did not comply with its obligation to present an updated inventory annually, and explained that this "could lead to serious conflicts" when those assets are returned to the grantor, because there was no way to measure the current state of the Rolling stock in relation to how they were delivered.
Regarding the maintenance of the infrastructure, the Watchdog assured that "the management is extremely deficit." In fact, the report pointed out that the network in operation was reduced by 55% compared to the moment the concession was granted: of the initial 2,751 kilometers, today it is transiting by 1,436 kilometers. In addition, there are "several branches impassable and in a state of abandonment," AGN said.
Rolling stock also deserved the same diagnosis: according to the Audit "the company did not implement corrective measures to eliminate (the) serious deficiencies" that caused a series of derailments. It is that the line operated by the company registers a derailment index higher than the average value of the concessional network. With "inadequate equipment and human resources without adequate training, the review tasks carried out by All Mesopotamians are superficial and unreliable," the watchdog noted, and concluded that "the alarming operational safety conditions are the corollary of the deficit Status of the track infrastructure."
Likewise, the company "does not comply with the maintenance cycles foreseen in the sheet", which "inexorably causes the degradation of the rolling stock", added the AGN. At the close of the report, approved in November 2008, 55% of the locomotives that were assigned were in operation and most of the wagons "present unfit conditions for circulation."