Last Friday, in a meeting that took place in Pilar, the companies gathered in the Federal Council of the Argentine Chamber of Constructions, (where companies of different sizes and from all over the country linked to public Works), decided to unite their claims against the government through a joint statement on the problems that concern them.
According to the sector, its representatives have been calling for urgent solutions for months, referring to payments, recalculations and deadlines in several operas that are performed in the country. For this reason, they have finally decided to issue a Declaration to warn the authorities and the community of the seriousness of the situation and its imminent effects.
Representatives from companies across the country, typically SMEs, said that, “If immediate action is not taken, current circumstances could have serious repercussions on employment in the sector, endangering the continuity of businesses”, note the statement.
Firms have recognized that, “after a period of high activity and employment in the sector, largely financed with corporate assets, in recent months there has been a shift from financial imbalance to serious economic damage of strong impact, which will consume the assets of companies”, they underlined.
According to the industry”worsening cost inflation data; the change in the marketing conditions of the most important inputs; supply difficulties; the impossibility of taking out loans to restore working capital, given the exorbitant rates; contractual price adjustment systems agreed six months ago that are totally unrepresentative of realityit would lead to a paralysis of the sector due to the impossibility of action, with its obvious effects on employment and regional activity”.
As a counter-proposal, to avoid the employment crisis and the activities they envisage, the companies have asked:
- The “urgent and full payment of the work performed, interest on arrears and the related repricing, which adjust the expired contractual values to current costs. This applies to all contracts, including those performed by agreements between jurisdictions, works generally performed by SMEs from all over the country”.
- The rapid approval and certification of repricings, a large part of the remuneration before huge accumulated inflation”.
- The possibility for the contractor to neutralize the deadlines of the works, without sanctions or freezes, until the situation is resolved, since “the inconveniences reported are not attributable to the contractor”, they argue.
- Finally, the companies requested “the adoption of measures a redirect the contracts in execution, in terms of prices and termsin such a way as to allow for its continuity, under the current circumstances,” they explained.
Furthermore, the companies engaged in public works have asked the authorities “to adopt urgent measures to mitigate or extinguish these situations since, if they continue, they will strongly affect the execution of the works”, they warned in the Declaration that was signed by representatives of the 25 delegations from all over the country.
The document signed by the representatives of the construction companies was released a few hours after the March inflation data reported by INDEC. The indicator for last month showed a surprise increase 7.7% and accumulates a 104.3% year over year increase,
Source: Clarin
