Asunción, Agencia IP.- The dispute between the Ministry of Public Works (MOPC) and the construction company Mota Engil over the Metrobus project concluded with the Arbitral Tribunal ruling against the Paraguayan State for executing the insurance policy against the Tribunal’s order and for delays in the project’s execution schedule.
General Prosecutor Marco Aurelio González announced the verdict yesterday at a press conference, describing it as a «negligent performance» by the Government’s previous administration.
For the execution of the insurance policy against the Tribunal’s explicit order, the State must return approximately $5 million, plus $1 million in interest, an increase in legal costs for this action, and a payment of $2.8 million to Mota Engil for amounts wrongfully withheld.
The Tribunal ruled that the MOPC was 37% responsible for the delay in the works, and an additional $5 million must be paid. Mota Engil attributed the delay to the State for 691 days, of which the Tribunal found the MOPC responsible for 258 days.
In total, by December 31, the amount the State must pay is $16.5 million, and Mota Engil must pay $100,000, according to González.
Next steps
The prosecutor stated that the document would be analyzed for defects in the judgment, and a nullity motion would be considered in Paraguayan courts. He added that appeals cannot be filed before the Arbitral Tribunal, only clarification or rectification requests.
«We have a period of 15 days to define the procedural strategy. We have already had meetings with the legal team and the lawyers in Paris who handled the arbitration. Next week, we will meet to analyze our arguments and present the corresponding legal resources,» he explained.
Alleged negligence in the Metrobus project
The execution of the insurance policy was carried out by the previous administration of the Attorney General’s Office after the cancellation of the project’s works. The amount collected by the MOPC was Gs. 40,390 million in total.
General Prosecutor González indicated that, based on the analysis of the background and the trial result, «not all aspects that could have prevented these million-dollar payments were taken into account,» referring to the execution of the insurance policy.
Regarding the cancellation of the Metrobus project, which took place in December 2018, the prosecutor stated that $27 million had already been paid for the works until that moment. «If that money (the claimed $16.5 million) had continued to complete the Metrobus, perhaps we would have had a project that would benefit the entire population, and we would not be allocating that money to pay a construction company for no work.»