UNIVERSITY requested invoices from Meco to the Municipality of San José, without being able to confirm how many tons were taken from the streets of Josefina
The Municipality of San José (MSJ) authorized Meco to remove the old asphalt from its streets, without verifying that, from this exchange, the local government received any benefit.
The criminal record of the “cochinilla” case explains that the construction company used recycled asphalt (RAP) in asphalt mixture that was charged as new within various road projects. According to the police and judicial investigation, the owner of Meco, Carlos Cerdas, was aware of this, imprisoned for alleged crimes of corruption.
UNIVERSITY searched for municipal information since August 4, when the Service Provision Manager, Marco Vinicio Corrales, stated in an interview that “they buy the RAP from us.” Meco has been the provider of road maintenance for the Municipality of Josefina, at least since 2010. Every four years they have been awarded a contract on demand.
However, the MSJ’s responses say that there is no RAP sale transaction.
On August 11, Mayor Johnny Araya’s journalist wrote to this weekly that the MSJ has no information on how many tons of recycled asphalt Meco has taken.
“We need an intervention now. The authorities, those in charge of solving, turn a blind eye, nothing happens here ”, secretary of the National Association of Municipal Employees
“From the poster, it was made clear that said material will become the property of the successful bidder, being she responsible for its removal, therefore, the administration does not have to keep any physical control of said material. At the time of billing each project, the reduction is made according to the profiled m3. As an example, the invoice presented is shown, the verification of the volumes is carried out by the road technical unit, ”wrote journalist Maricruz Gómez.
Gómez also assured that “the data of the amount of RAP outlined and its value reduced to the invoices has been requested from the Technical Unit for greater accuracy of the information.”
Despite several test requests, this weekly has not received an invoice or information stating how much RAP asphalt Meco took.
Contradictions from the MSJ
In an interview on August 3, the municipal manager, Marco Vinicio Corrales, explained that the Municipality of San José gave Meco the RAP of the canton.
“There was a time when the RAP we left it to ourselves, everything that came off the streets, and we put it in. In the last tenders, the RAP is sold (to Meco) for its projects, but the RAP cannot be placed on the streets that we have listed. In the tender it was clearly specified that whoever won it should leave the RAP and
pay the commercial value to the Municipality. So they buy the RAP from us, ”Corrales said on that occasion.
On August 6, the Communication Section of the Municipality responded to a first request for invoices that “it is not indicated that the awarded supplier must return to the institution any economic resource for the recovery of waste asphalt. The Municipality does not enter any of that asphalt for the projects of the canton, but the cost of the work is lowered, since this institution is only interested in ensuring that the mixture meets the parameters and quality standards ”.
The poster of the last tender (2021LN-000001-0015499999) says that “The profiled material may be used by the contractor for its own benefit, NOT reused in this project, or disposed of in authorized dumps under the responsibility of the contractor. The bidder must clearly indicate in his calculation memory the cost that will be recognized to the municipality to receive this material ”.
The same poster omits information on the price of the material or specifications on the supervision of the profiling of the asphalt.
“It is whimsical what Meco wants to give back to”
The lawyer Alexander Cerdas, an official of the Legal Directorate of the Municipality until 2020, indicated that this is one of several posters that are “manipulated” in San José.
Cerdas affirms that the Administration must determine “the value per linear meter of what is going to be lifted from the asphalt mixture, if it is reusable and how it is being determined that it is not the same mixture that is being placed” in the streets.
“It is a deficient poster and it has a nullity defect because it is causing damage to the municipal treasury. The profiled material does not have a specific cost, but rather what Meco wants to return to the Administration. It means that the Administration is conditioned to what Meco wants to return and not to what a technical study determines of the value of the profiled material ”, assured Cerdas.
The lawyer is one of 33 officials that UNIVERSITY reported about his dismissal in 2020 as part of a “restructuring.”
Since January 12, the labor judge Susana Porras ordered “the immediate suspension of the effects of the dismissal act” of the lawyer, according to the resolution that Cerdas sent to UNIVERSITY. To date, it continues without being reinstated.
Cerdas affirms that he has been working for the MSJ since 2010 and that, between that year and 2015, he worked in the municipal Procurement Office.
“You have to ask for the invoices from Meco, to see the reduction in the amount of asphalt mix it has raised. They are not going to give it to them. They delay everything so that the press becomes impatient and does not want to do the article, ”said Cerdas.
Asphalt revision by a single official
Without the invoices requested by UNIVERSITY since August 4 and, again, for the closing of this report, workers and former workers affirm that the only person in charge of supervising the Meco contract is Kenneth Quesada, director of the Municipal Road Management Technical Unit .
“Before, as appropriate, they gave the task of supervising the works of Meco to a supervisor named Francisco Cerdas. Obviously, as a result of the danger of information being leaked, he was relieved by the same leadership called Kenneth Quesada Ballestero. He is the only supervisor. He is obliged to see how much they collect from profiling and, also, to see how much mix they put in per night, “said Álvaro Mayorga, secretary of the National Association of Municipal Employees (ANEP) and an official of the MSJ.
UNIVERSITY previously reported that the Internal Audit accumulates reports on asphalt losses, lack of supervision and planning, among others.
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