This Friday the president of the Antel telecommunications company, Gabriel Gurméndez, appeared before the Prosecutor’s Office to testify as a witness in the case that investigates the construction procedure of the Antel Arena. At the exit, the company leader spoke to the press and pointed out that during construction “the exception became the norm”.
Gurméndez explained, when leaving the Prosecutor’s Office, that the prosecutor for Economic and Complex Crimes, Enrique Rodríguez, called him to appear as a witness. However, he did not provide details about the interrogation as a reserved investigation.
However, the president of Antel remarked again why he considers that there are merits for the complaint.
In the first place, he said that in the construction of the facility there was “a systematic action outside of Antel’s legal duties by authorities that we understand did not take due care with public money.”
Gurméndez pointed out that the cost of the Antel Arena was more than almost 120 million dollars and economic damage that “could be foreseen.” “This entire process was done under a cloak of absolute confidentiality and secrecy, which gave little crystallinity and transparency to the processes,” he stated.
“All the observations of the Court of Accounts, which observed absolutely all the acts, were ignored,” he added.
The president of Antel highlighted that the administration in charge “went down a path of direct awards without bidding; The exception became the norm, in files that are incomplete, where there are no traces of the decisions or motivations for the foundations, ”he stressed.
“He went forward with all intention in that project, whatever the cost, evading the rules, the comptrollers and at the end of the day with great damage to the public administration,” he sentenced.
