federal prosecutors Diego Luciani and Sergio Mola will continue today with their arguments in the oral trial of the vice president Cristina Kirchner for the alleged irregularities in the public works that the businessman received Lazarus Baez. It will be the third hearing of the nine scheduled by the Federal Oral Court (TOF) 2 in which they will continue with the analysis of the tenders for the 51 works that the businessman obtained for the province of Santa Cruz.
The allegations began on Monday and the prosecutors accused Cristina Kirchner and the rest of the 12 defendants, so that at the end of the hearings they will ask for a conviction. “Néstor and Cristina Kirchner installed one of the most extraordinary matrixes of corruption,” Luciani maintained at the first hearing. Also, on Tuesday they began the analysis of each of the works: “The tenders were a fiction because there was no control.”
Today’s hearing will begin at 8:30, it will be by videoconference and Cristina Kirchner will not be present. At this stage of the trial, the defendants must go to her, but the former president requested authorization not to be in the Senate for her tasks and TOF 2 authorized her to be absent. It is expected that it will last until 5:00 p.m.
For today, it is estimated that the prosecutors complete the analysis of the works. They already did it with 19 of them.
The judges Jorge Gorini, Rodrigo Gimenez Uriburu and Andres Basso prosecutors were given nine hearings to plead. Luciani announced that he will use all of them and that he may require some more. Thus, the tax claim will be extended from a minimum until the end of the month. Then it will be the turn of each defense that will have three hearings. The first will be that of Báez and that of Cristina Kirchner, the sixth. The expectation of the court is that before the end of the year there is a verdict.
“This Public Prosecutor’s Office is accredited that between 2003 and 2015 an illicit association with unique characteristics operated within the State. It was an organization that with a mirror figure clandestinely replicated an organization chart of the State. It was an illicit pyramidal association that had at its peak those who were heads of state and in which various public officials participated who, in parallel to the legal plane but using their powers, provided the necessary contributions,” Luciani described in the first hearing.
In the case of the irregularities in the 51 public works that the Báez companies received from 2003 to 2015 for Santa Cruz. Together with Cristina Kirchner and Báez they are accused July De Vidoformer Minister of Federal Planning, Jose Lopezformer Secretary of Public Works, Carlos Kirchnerformer head of the Undersecretary for the Coordination of Federal Public Works and cousin of former President Néstor Kirchner, and nelson periottiformer head of the National Road Directorate, among others.
On the works, the prosecutor gave some data. The Báez companies received 78 percent of the works that from 2003 to 2015 were awarded to Santa Cruz. Only three were completed in a timely manner and they were not road works. Only 27 of the 51 were completed, of which 24 had severe delays with unjustified delays. “The worst, inexplicable, 24 works awarded to the Báez group were abandoned, left unfinished. This exposes the lack of technical capacity of the companies”, he described.
He also revealed a test that was not known and that he called “plan to clean everything”. These are WhatsApp messages found on López’s cell phone that was kidnapped when he was arrested in 2016 at the General Rodríguez convent with bags containing nine million dollars.
Luciani pointed out that these messages reveal meetings between López and Cristina Kirchner and Báez with the then president in November and December 2015, a few days before I left the presidency. According to the accusation, in those meetings it was agreed to pay everything that was owed to Báez -537 million pesos- for the works, even though they were not finished.
In the second hearing on Tuesday, prosecutors began to analyze each of the works that Báez received.
The first examples were those of four tenders that were made simultaneously “with an inadmissible speed that was not justified.” They were tenders that were called at the end of 2006 and were awarded at the beginning of 2007. “The contracts were signed a few months after the winter closed season began, so as the contract established, it was not going to be possible to start the work,” Luciani explained. and said that the bids were awarded in 45, 47, 46, 62 days from the call for bids. “With amazing speed, with almost no publicity,” he criticized.
The first work was the paving of 39 km of National Route 288 for 192 million pesos. Austral Construcciones, Kank y Costilla, Gotti and Petersen presented the tender. The first three of Báez and the fourth “courtesy”, said the prosecutor because he offered 20 percent more and was disqualified. The work was awarded to Gotti who gave it to Austral. The term of the work was three years but it was extended 120 months and it was not finished.
The second work was the resurfacing of 67 km of Route 261 with a budget of 93 million pesos. Kank y Costilla, Austral Construcciones and Petersen were presented. He again called Petersen a “courtesy” who was disqualified because she submitted an incorrect collateral. “fictitious competition” Luciani qualified.
The paving of 22 km of route 40 was the third work. Austral Construcciones-Gotti, Kank y Costilla and Petersen were presented with a budget of 121 million, which was disqualified for an offer 20 higher. Austral-Gotti won.
The same scheme was given for the gravel on National Route 3: Kank y Costilla, Austral Construcciones and Petersen presented themselves. The latter made an offer of 20 percent more and was disqualified. Austral Construcciones won for 238 million pesos, 39 more than the official budget.
“It allows us to make it clear that there was not only rude addressing but also the lack of adequate control that has harmful consequences for the administration. And this is explained by the fact that the order to benefit Báez came from the highest levels of the executive branch,” the prosecutor analyzed.
The prosecution will continue with that analysis today.
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