The prosecutor Diego Luciani resumed this morning the allegation in the trial of the road casewhich has Cristina Kirchner, Lazarus Baez and 12 former national and provincial officials as defendants for the crimes of illicit association and fraud against the State.
In the same line that was followed during the previous hearing, Luciani continues reviewing the bids for the 51 works that Lázaro Báez received, one by one and in chronological order. The prosecutor provides evidence to show that Báez was competing against himself – that is, that the tenders were “a fiction” – and that the State did not control him. According to Luciani, this was only possible because there was an order from “the highest of the Executive Branch.”
As in Tuesday’s hearing, the vice president is absent. She justified before TOF 2 that she has parliamentary activity as president of the Senate and was authorized not to attend. Listen to the accusation of her her lawyer Carlos Beraldi.
Luciani referred to tender number 19, for the construction of basic works and pavement on Route 288. It was tender 12309/07. The bidders were Kank and Rib (which was dismissed for not matching the specifications), Austral Constructions, Petersen Thiele and Cruz, Y Gotti.
“When this tender was made, Báez had just acquired the share package of Kank y Costilla. We see clearly that three companies offered and they were the three companies controlled directly or indirectly, through share transfers or a power of attorney. [como Gotti]and in the case of Petersen, it can only be said that it lent itself to the maneuver, since no company would lend itself to reoffending in presenting offers above what was allowed”, said Luciani. The work was awarded to Gotti, who later assigned the contract to Austral Construcciones. “This went practically unnoticed,” added Luciani, referring to the lack of control over the transfer of hands of that contract.
The prosecutor spoke of the “synchronicity of the maneuver” when pointing out the speed with which the tenders were processed and the way in which, with a repeated bidding mechanism, the works always remained in the hands of a company controlled by Lázaro Báez. And regarding tender number 23, which was a resurfacing work on a section of Route 40, he said: “the speed with which the tender was called is not consistent with the tolerance that was had in the execution period. . From 36 months established, it went to 120 months, and the work was not finished. “In less than 24 hours it is impossible to study the project and the offers”, observed Luciani when he referred to another project that was awarded in record time. He then exhibited a graph showing the delays in the progress deadlines of most of the works.
“There is no work that is finished on time. We can understand that there may be situations in which companies request extensions of deadlines for various reasons, now, that of all the works you cannot finish any, it speaks of something systematic, of the lack of capacity of the company”, he added.
“Judges, when we analyze the file we cannot believe what we see -he said- we are not referring to outside issues, I can’t believe how such acts of corruption could go unnoticed and manipulation of the public works of Santa Cruz”.
In the previous hearing, Mola reviewed the first contracts awarded to Báez. He and Luciani claimed that the bids had been simulated. He pointed out the way in which the bidding processes were carried out and questioned on some occasions the speed with which the offers, the awards and even the payments of financial advances were carried out. Addressing is the main axis of the prosecutors’ accusation.
“There was rude and unacceptable targeting and a complete lack of control. It was impossible for it to be allowed if it was not because the order came from the highest of the Executive Branch,” Diego Luciani said on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, yesterday La Cámpora broadcast images of graffiti in different neighborhoods of Buenos Aires and the suburbs with the slogan “Everyone with Cristina.” “They want to ban Cristina. The Judicial Party already has the written sentence. The economic power, the real one, strengthened its representation and its headquarters is Comodoro Py. There is no news, we have already seen it in other countries in the region. Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay and Honduras are clear examples of what they are capable of persecuting popular leaders. Lawfare in our country is also the order of the day,” said the organization led by Máximo Kirchner.
Trial hearings are Monday, Tuesday, and Friday. The prosecutor’s argument is expected to last two more weeks and then it will be the turn of the defenses. In total, the arguments are estimated to last about four months.