Arequipa. “We are in the same situation at the signing of the Addendum 13. Not at all”, said Joaquín Roura, representative of the Cobra company, the entity that is in charge of executing the Majes Siguas II project. Before members of the Arequipa Regional Council (CRA)the private announced that the Autonomous Authority of Majes (Autodema), has a string of breaches that forced him to activate direct treatment before the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF). If there is no solution, the next step is international arbitration and a new suspension for the megabra.
For the concessionaire, these unresolved commitments prevent the reactivation of Majes II, which has been stopped since 2017. Nor can financial closure be made. Roura stressed that mainly file No. 2 for the works of the second phase has not been approved, nor was full control of the project handed over, land for the execution of the works. “It’s paper, it’s not money,” the manager emphasized on several occasions.
For Cobra, file No. 2 has a favorable report and they do not understand that the resolution is not issued. For Autodema there are 179 observations that were not resolved from the initial 358, of which 66 are critical or serious. At one point, Roura accused regional officials of blackmail. He explained that they were being pressured to accept some of the alternatives to vary the path of the Lluclla intake. Autodema has problems for the delivery of that initial land. If you do not comply until April 12, it is grounds for termination of the contract.
In total, Cobra disclosed 16 defaults (see list), most of which expired between July and December 2022.such as the failure to report progress for the repair of the hydraulic infrastructure of Majes I or the updating of the Environmental Impact Study (EIA) that should have been done until July 14, 2022. Each EIA is valid for 5 years.
According to the private, a specialized supervision team was not set up either after the termination of the contract with the company in charge in December 2022.
Regarding the modification to file No. 1B to no longer use the tunnel boring machine for the execution of the Pucara tunnel, the manager assured that it is within Autodema’s power to approve it or not. “What matters is that it continues to drive the water with 40 years of durability,” he said.
In response to inquiries from the directors as to whether they will insist on a claim of US$ 120 million for damages, The directors maintained that they have the will to continue with the work if these problems are resolved.
Roura assured that they fulfilled their commitments such as the guarantee of faithful compliance that reaches US$ 55 million or the processing of the Certificate of Inexistence of Archaeological Remains for the works of the second phase.
Observations
1. Obtaining quarries and dumps.
2. Majes I infrastructure insurance policy.
3. Certificates of compensatory co-financing.
4.-Execution and commissioning reports of Majes I.
5. Execution of defense on the way to the Lluclla intake.
6.-EIA Update Phase 1.
7. Valuation of works done.
8. Supervision team.
9. Execution of stream diversion
10.-Trust contract.
11. Sovereign guarantee contract.
12.-Water service and distribution contract.
13. Block water delivery contract.
14.-Disbursement of co-financing.
15. Approval of technical file No. 2.
16.Delivery of control of the project.
Source: Larepublica
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