The National Electricity Regulatory Entity (ENRE) on Thursday ruled out that the government is studying the possibility of expropriating Edesur, after protests over the lack of service and the company’s $1 billion fine.
“No one talks about the expropriation of Edesur”, said Walter Martello, ENRE controller. Although, he added, there are examples such as Brazil, “where the state holds 45% of the company’s shares”.
In this sense, he argued that the state must interfere in a “monopoly company”, which has 60 years of concession ahead of it.
“State participation in monopolistic enterprises where you can not choose and even what they are providing is the consecration of a right, such as access to electricity, must have the presence of the state,” he added.
The declarations of the controller of the state control body come hours after those of the spokeswoman Gabriela Cerruti, who when asked about a possible expropriation, replied that the Executive “analyses all the variablesas long as they exist legally and are able to take care of users and consumers”.
A few days ago, the Government issued a harsh warning to Edesur, the concessionary company which experienced disservices in its service which affected more than 180,000 users.
“Our pulse will not tremble if this implies the termination of the concession contract for the electricity distribution service managed by the EDESUR company,” tweeted Flavia Royón, Secretary of Energy.
The head of ENRE warned that if a “technical quality” report on the company is produced, which does not give rise to a complaint before the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), “the end of the concession may take place softly .
Martello categorically ruled out that an expropriation is being analyzed, arguing that it would not be the best way “for the economic consequences of an ICSID trial for the country” and reiterated that it is up to the Executive to issue a new tender.
“For our part, it’s about reproducing violations of sufficient quality for political authority to determine what actions to follow regarding the concession,” he said.
The ENRE controller has launched a kind of comprehensive audit on the management of Edesur, which will be a performance report, to “evaluate its repeated violations and behavior towards users and the corresponding evaluation of the acts to follow”.
In the audit that ENRE will carry out, whose first meeting will be next week, compliance with the investment regime, compliance with user response times and the quality of the transmission service throughout the company’s territory will be verified electric. .
“There is not only a problem of tariff delays that make it impossible for them to invest. There is a problem that they don’t make investments chronically and that they also have poor management of what concerns the operational part”, concluded Martello.
Source: Clarin
