Through a minute, the basis was made known after the decision adopted by the future Undersecretary of Public Works, Alfredo Gutiérrez, who decided to initiate a disciplinary process against a company for breach of contract in the construction of a barge that connects Villa O ‘Higgins, when he was National Director of Port Works.
The next undersecretary of the government of President-elect Gabriel Boric, in his capacity as an official of the entity linked to the MOP, is accused by Construcciones y Obras Marinas V y S SA for causing “serious damage to the company and its collaborators and shareholders,” among other things, by paying out of phase a million-dollar contract for “the design and construction of a ferry on Lake O’Higgins, located in the Aysén Region of General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo, tendered by the National Directorate of Port Works.”
A new barge was reported for the month of December last year. But changes in the clauses of the contract between the plaintiff company and the MOP motivated the company to present legal action, paralyzing the incorporation of the barge that came to solve the connectivity problems of the families of Lake O’Higgins.
As detailed in the document issued by the Port Works Directorate (DOP), the Ministry of Public Works awarded in 2019, —date on which the civil engineer and MOP official for 22 years, Alfredo Gutiérrez was listed as Director of the DOP— the construction of a barge that would allow the replacement of the Barcaza Integración that had been in operation since 1992, whose function was to connect families by lake to the Villa O’Higgins sector for trade and supply purposes.
Said tender in its first award would have been suspended due to the non-compliance of the bidding company, however after a resolution of the local mayor’s office, which would have agreed to reduce the size of the vessel, this contract could be finalized with another shipowner firm for 1,700 million pesos under the clause that its construction would take place in Villa O’Higgins.
The aforementioned minute maintains that after the advent of the pandemic and other administrative inconveniences forced the company to request the Port Works Directorate the possibility of finishing the manufacture of the barge in Puerto Montt, assuming the costs of transfer to Villa O’Higgins , which added to a request on the progress of the financial conditions of the contract, determined its non-compliance.
For this reason, the Port Works Directorate would have determined a fine against the company, which —they assure— was answered by the bidders with a complaint for administrative prevarication against the future undersecretary.
Flavia Torrealba, vice president of the Social Green Regionalist Federation, assured that this complaint “does not tarnish his 20 years in service, and arises before those who see the MOP as political loot and fear that a person who has defended the State will assume this appointment.” .
Along these lines, they insist that the administrative process was acted correctly, since the obligation signed in the tender was to deliver the barge to Villa O’Higgins and this was not fulfilled, and it was not possible to demonstrate arguments justifying higher costs associated with the delay in the work for which the company was fined”.
Minutes on Barcaza O’Higgins by The counter on Scribd
