Market Control Supervisor Danilo Sylva dismissed appeals filed by Norberto Odebrecht Construction Company, currently CNO SA, and the Electricity Corporation of Ecuador (Celec EP), upholding a fine of $56,755,175. .98 to a construction company and $1,339,085.76 to an Ecuadorian corporation.

The sanction imposed by the control body was due to the violation of Article 11, number 21, of the Organic Law for the Regulation and Control of Market Power (ZORKPM), which prohibits and sanctions agreements with vertical users, concluded between economic entities, in public procurement procedures. , whose actions were carried out outside the provisions of the Law

This secret agreement was reached between Celec as the buyer and contractor with Odebrecht as the state supplier for the construction of the Manduriacu hydroelectric plant and the repair of the loading tunnel of the Pucará hydroelectric plant.

Photo of one of the offices of Odebrecht in Latin America. Photo: German falcon

These two jobs were awarded by Celec to a Brazilian construction company and increased the price by $130,082,056 during their construction, causing higher amounts to be written off than the reference budgets.

As stated in the entity’s press release, Sylva made the decision considering that there was no violation of the right to a legal procedure, nor deficiencies that affect the administrative sanctioning of the procedure, therefore it confirmed the decision made by the First Instance Resolution Commission (CRPI). superintendence.

This commission found “commitment to vertical collusion in public procurement procedures, which distorted market competition, since it eliminated uncertainty in the market, as Celec EP steered contracts to or in favor of Odebrecht and prevented other companies from competing on the basis of their business merits.