William Ferraro. Photo: Paul Añeli
The Minister of Infrastructure, Guillermo Ferraro, assured this Friday that the national government identified financing of works for about US$ 4,000 million granted by multilateral organizations, items that are “subjected or slowed down” Therefore, the focus will be on its normalization.
Likewise, the official reiterated that the continuity of the works that are already being carried out is guaranteed but clarified that they will be left without effect the new projects that were tendered or planned but have not yet started.
In statements to El Observador radio, Ferraro criticized the previous administration because “they have had the approach of doing many small, small works that could easily have been carried out by the municipalities.”
Along these lines, he stated that “The works we are talking about that are slowed down today are very small, around 2,000 in number, and we are going to try to finish those that are worthwhile.”
The official suggested that initiatives that are not continued by the national government “can be continued in some way by the municipalities or provinces.”
Photo: Archive
Finally, he once again questioned the previous government by maintaining that “important works have not been seen in the country for many years. There are no new accesses to Buenos Aires, new ports, freight trains, etc.,” said Ferraro.
On the other hand, the new minister announced that they are working on a new regulatory framework to modify the Public Works Law 17,520. According to him, the new regulations will seek to generate incentives for the private sector to present projects and carry out infrastructure works.
“We are not going down the path of the PPP, we even have a critical judgment of when they were applied, because there were already failures in the world in this matter. We are going for a concept that already existed in Argentina, and in Chile it was more effective, which is that of private initiative“said Ferraro.
Photo: Nacho Sánchez
And he added that “basically it is about the public or private sector being able to call to present a project, and if it seems appropriate we declare it of interest and on that basis we call for bidding so that other private companies can compete.”
The minister indicated that this model “in Chile worked very well: all access to Santiago, the airport, and ports, have been done under this modality.”
In another order of topics, Ferraro specified that, since his inauguration, in his portfolio “130 jobs out of 3,000 have been cut just due to requests for resignations, but before the end of the month, when the contracts end, the percentage will grow to a level of 30% of the staff.”
“That is in the central administration, then we are left with the public companies that in railways alone have a total of 35,000 people. In public companies we do not yet have a definitive number but we are going to go for a significant cut,” he added, anticipating more layoffs.
2023-12-15 20:20:58
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