The Municipality of San Miguel de Tucumán ratified before the provincial courts that the precautionary measure issued in August 2022 to suspend paid parking generated “an enormous economic damage” to the municipality, since such a situation “continues today.”
The document was presented by the municipal prosecutor, Conrado Mosqueirabefore Chamber II of the Chamber of Administrative Litigation, made up of Felicitas Masaguer and Maria Florencia Casaswithin the framework of the collective protection action that unified the demands of the Ombudsman’s Office, in charge of Eduardo Cobosand the user federation that he presides Jose GarciaFodecus, among others.
In April, the municipal prosecutor of the mayor of Rossana Chahla had formulated a proposal in which it warned about “impropriety” in the bidding procedure for the award of metered parking in favor of the UTE Tecno Agro Vial, a procedure carried out during the management of German Alfaro. However, according to the municipal prosecutor’s office, these questions should have been resolved “at the administrative level.”
Chamber II required Mosqueira “to clearly explain the purpose” of that writing, a procedure that was completed this Monday.
“It must be clear that genuine resources of my client protected by the Organic Law of Municipalities are being affected,” said the lawyer. He recalled that, according to this regulation, municipal assets include public assets – such as streets, sidewalks and parks – and different resources, among them, the service questioned in this judicial case. And he mentioned the political, administrative and financial autonomy of the municipalities, guaranteed by the provincial Constitution.
“The indefinite extension of this collective protection process, which in fact brings it closer to an ordinary process, affects our economic autonomy by depriving us of genuine and necessary resources for the administration and management of the Municipality of San Miguel de Tucumán,” Mosqueira noted. .
In addition, he reiterated the questions about the agreement concluded by the Alfarismo for paid parking, focusing on the financial effect of the precautionary measure in force for more than a year and a half. “The absence of certain requirements that make the bidding process transparent, public hearing, due information on the situation of the co-defendant contractor, which come together in a leonine fixing of tariffs in his favor, make my client the only one actually harmed by this action,” indicated the municipal prosecutor.
According to Mosqueira, holding a public hearing before hiring the UTE “would have offered benefits for consumers and the community in general, since it directly favors transparency, and allows public service providers to present their arguments and justifications. for setting prices and/or fees.” “This would have led to building trust between the company and consumers,” added the lawyer.
Along those lines, Mosqueira added that citizen participation would have given neighbors “the opportunity to express their concerns and opinions about the proposed prices, which would encourage greater civic engagement” and “a greater sense of empowerment among them.”
He then noted that this type of process “encourages accountability,” as “utility companies are forced to justify their pricing decisions and assume responsibility for their actions to the community.”
In this paragraph, the municipal prosecutor sent another shot for elevation of alfarismo, pointing out the importance of preventing “abuses”, such as the agreement of “85% profit (for the company) vs 15% collection to the Municipality.” “By exposing (the numbers) to the public, the likelihood of companies setting unfair or abusive prices or exorbitant profits is reduced, as they are subject to greater community oversight and scrutiny,” he added.
Finally, Mosqueira reiterated that the precautionary measure issued in this process “aggravates our economic situation”, given that the judicial measure has remained in force since August 2022.
Chamber II, for its part, went on to resolve the request of the Tecno Agro Vial UTE to reject the claim in limine. Thus, the case regarding paid parking could have entered a decisive instance, although there are no deadlines for the substantive ruling.
The keys to paid parking in Tucumán
1- In July 2022, the Municipality then headed by Germán Alfaro (PJS) activated a metered parking mechanism in about 300 blocks of the Capital, covering the center, the microcenter and its surroundings.
2- To put it into operation, the municipality entered into a contract with the UTE Tecno Agro Vial. However, the service was only operational for 45 days, due to a collective protection action promoted by different plaintiffs.
3- In August 2022, the provincial Justice ordered the suspension of all acts related to metered parking, including the concession and charging of users. Thus, the app remains inactive.
