The Comptroller General of the Republic, Felipe Córdoba, issued a warning statement regarding the works at the Café Airport (Aerocafé) in the sense that “they are at certain risk of remaining unfinished and useless for the service of users and the community that lives in the area of influence located in the municipality of Palestina-Caldas”this due to indications of risk against public assets evidenced when analyzing the milestones of contract 009 of 2021 signed with the Spanish firm Obrascón Huarte Lain SA Colombia Branch.
(Aerocafé is declared of strategic importance).
On July 11, the Ad Hoc Delegate Comptroller for the matter, Gabriel Adolfo Jurado, presented a recommendation to the Comptroller General to issue this warning to the contract, given the breach that was declared, with the consequent fine and the application of the pecuniary penalty clause (for $28,019 million) to Obrascón Huarte Lain SA Sucursal Colombia.
The CGR evidenced the breach of milestone 2 by the contractor, scheduled to deliver on March 28, 2022, whose progress to that date was close to 425,977 m3, and which as of June 13 last, was 715,893 m3, far from the contractual goal of 2,000,000 m3 programmed, which highlights the breach of the agreed goal, which materializes in a gap of 1,284,107 m3 between the leveled area and what was programmed in this milestone as of June 13, 2022.
Consequently, the non-compliance with the daily goals by the contractor Obrascón Huarte Lain SA Sucursal Colombia has the effect that day by day the performance or the demand for earthworks increases exponentially, in such a way that, as of March 28, 2022 , there was a need for daily earthworks of 19,000 m3, a figure that the contractor has not met either and that non-compliance persists, according to the information provided to the CGR by the project audit.
(Aerocafé received tax guarantee from Confis for $198,119 million).
Given then that the activities required for Phase 1 of the project have not been completed and the completion date is uncertain, the Comptroller’s Office considered that the following risks could be classified:
• Risk of amortization of the advance: Due to the poor performance that has been evidenced in the development of the contract, the billing has also been low. The value of the advance is $42,029,617,207 and $16,066,591,750 have been drawn for the investment plan, of which only the sum of $1,138,127,827 has been amortized.
• Risk of delay in signing and/or perfecting the contract and/or in compliance with the Work Start Order, for reasons attributable to the Contracting Party. (air side).
• Risk of higher opportunity costs for the availability of the construction areas at later dates, which are the responsibility of the Employer.
• Risk of delay in the start and completion of works, for delays in the delivery of the construction areas that are the responsibility of the Contractor. (land side).
• Risk of non-execution in the period of budget appropriations of approved future validity periods.
• Risk due to early or unilateral termination of the work contract, since the purposes of the state that are intended to be satisfied will not be fulfilled in the terms provided in the contract. On the other hand, a new process must be started that will involve the planning, structuring, contracting and execution stages, which entails greater investments in time and resources and will affect public assets.
Thus, for the Comptroller Felipe Córdoba, it is evident that the risks to public assets associated with this case are quite high, since on the one hand the contractor has had to be ordered, through non-compliance processes, which means that he is not has agreed to its legal and contractual duty to fully comply with the obligations under its responsibility.
(Civil Aeronautics gives the green light for the construction of a new airport).
“An imminent risk of loss of public resources is identified in this project that as of March 31, 2022 has received a total of transfers of $114,873 million from the Nation for $60,518 million and from the region for $54,355 million. Likewise, payments for $61,149 million have been made”, Cordoba said.
Additionally, under such assumption, a new process should be initiated involving the planning, structuring, contracting and execution stages, which would undoubtedly entail greater investments in time and resources, thus affecting public assets. In addition to all of the above, the contractor Obrascón Huarte Lain S.A. The Colombia Branch has filed an arbitration lawsuit against the contracting entity, a fact that further aggravates the development of the project.
BRIEFCASE
