According to the MOP, these operators were not correctly implementing a clause requiring the lowering of the value of TIPs at peak times and saturation if the speed of movement in the previous period was down from a certain level.
“During the first quarter of this year, before the effects of coronavirus, before quarantine. Before all that, the conditions for a reduction in various fares were met and, according to the terms of the contract of those three motorways, that rebate should have been applied from the first of Last April,” Moreno explained.
The public works holder noted that “unresolved points” remain, the first being that the number of blocks that will have to lower their rates is more than those pointed out by the concessionaires.
It should be noted that some of these casualties have already occurred, but the MOP believes that the number of porches from which each concessionaire reduced its rate is insufficient. It therefore charged the submission of requests to an arbitral committee.
“Each of these contracts has a conciliatory commission that is then transformed into arbitration. They have to define any difference between the Directorate of Concessions, the Ministry of Public Works and the concessionaire. It is a commission made up of three parts, one appointed by each of the parties and one by common accord,” Moreno said according to Pulso de La Tercera.
“These commissions first try to reconcile the positions and if they fail to become an arbitral commission, and decides and then the parties can go with a complaint to the Supreme Court, which is where finally interpretation is what the correct meaning of each clause of the contract is,” the minister added.
Copsa, a guild that brings together companies in the sector, ensured that its partners “have faithfully complied with and correctly implemented public works concession contracts, drawn up by that ministry, for all years of its validity, and in particular its tariff rules”. And they accused the MOP of making a “new and inconsistent interpretation of the bidding bases” which differs from what has been intended to be exposed to public opinion.
“In this situation, our partners have activated or will activate the dispute resolution mechanism set out in the bidding bases,” they added.
For its part Vespucio Norte stated that, in its opinion, “the calculation of tariffs and their application has always been carried out in a transparent manner, following the process established in our bidding bases and always having the express and explicit approval of the Ministry of Public Works”, adding that it will resort “to the mechanisms of dispute resolution this discrepancy”.
