This Thursday, July 28, Cosse testified, as an investigator, before the 1st shift Prosecutor for Economic Crimes and Complexes, Enrique Rodríguez, in the framework of the investigation for alleged irregularities during the construction of the ANTEL-Arena multimodal complex.
The head of the departmental government of the capital appeared at the Fiscal headquarters accompanied by the lawyer, Gonzalo Fernández.
The complaint against him was filed in November 2021 by the current ANTEL authorities, based on an external audit of 2020, which revealed “cost overruns.”
As indicated at the time by the president of ANTEL, Gabriel Gurméndez, according to the data of the auditing firm presented until June 30, 2020, the cost of construction of the ANTEL Arena was about “118 million dollars, a higher figure to which they had been handling referred to 40 million dollars”.
When the construction of ANTEL-Arena began in 2014, Cosse was president of the telecommunications company; and when the multimodal complex was inaugurated in 2018, she was serving as Minister of Industry.
political operetta
After the statement in the Prosecutor’s Office, Cosse made statements to the press and stated that the facts should be located in what is -in his opinion- “a political operation.”
He clarified that the prosecutor has nothing to do with it, he has a generic complaint and is doing his job, but without a doubt “it is a political operetta.”
“The origin of this is in September, the month of the elections for the Municipality of Montevideo, and on September 7, in 48 hours, the current Board of ANTEL decided to make a tender for an audit, wrote the specifications and published it. In 48 hours, a record. Later, in 15 days, he attributed it to a report that the first thing it says is ‘Entrustment of assurance other than audit’”, said the mayor.
The Montevideo chief described the audit as “pseudo-audit, plagued with opinions that she does not audit and takes a position.
He said that it was convenient to build the ANTEL-Arena, within the framework of a strategy of the telecommunications company.
“If those who do this think they are going to distract me from my role, responsibility, work and commitment to Montevideo, and if they think they are going to discourage me from defending ANTEL, they are wrong and they have failed,” Cosse said.
