In dialogue with 32nd parallel, the director of the interprovincial entity architect Eduardo López Segura, explained the measures he is taking: concessioning the services of the social and tourist complex; review telephone and internet contracts; retire over-age or disabled personnel, eliminate overtime, recover abandoned vehicles, among other ideas.
– What are the objectives and goals for which you were appointed by Governor Frigerio?
— The slogan was ‘reduce staff and reduce costs’. Reducing the plant is more difficult because there is legal stability. But what can we do? We see people about to retire and they don’t retire. We have eight people there. Then, we have people with health problems, to see retirement due to disability. We had people who did not come to work and we applied the protocol to them. The idea is to continue reducing personnel, but as long as it does not cause conflicts. That was the idea. We are cutting costs terribly.
And he went on to name: 8 million pesos were reduced in eliminated overtime; phones were taken from those who do not need them to work; also internet costs, making a comparison of values. Regarding the Internet, L. Segura explained that there is a direct line from the El Plumazo club, from the Claro antenna that is there and transmits directly to the Túnel.
In the Health part, we have the ART in the complex with a doctor and a nurse, who is an employee of the Tunnel, who only works from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Outside of those hours they are not there if there is an emergency to attend to. “The idea is that the nurse performs administrative tasks, in Safety and Hygiene; and when the doctor comes for an hour a day, as required by the ART, the nurse brings him the daily report,” she said. Additionally, there is a company contracted for ambulance services, when necessary.
Social complex
Another issue, which is being resisted by the Subfluvial Tunnel workers’ union, is granting concessions to the social complex to have a dining room that works on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. L. Segura also hopes that the dining room will be able to have captive clients with accommodation in the complex. “Last year there were 70,000 people in the complex and they left nothing, except a contribution bonus of one hundred pesos,” he stressed and added: “We spent, spent and spent, but we have no income from the complex.”
“The social complex has a current cost of 24 million pesos per month, which reaches 39 million due to the assignment of our employees who should be working in the Tunnel. For electricity, there are 1.7 million pesos on the complex’s bill. We reduced and now, that expense is no longer,” commented the interviewee.
Toll and increases
In addition to the toll collection, which is the main income of the autonomous entity, other entries are a concession to Telecom for the use of space for an antenna and fiber optics. “They are extras that add up,” says the director. Regarding tolls, L. Segura explained that he is trying to convince legislators and officials that the toll should be increased automatically following the increase in fuel. “When gasoline increases, the toll increases to the same extent,” he added. He pointed out that now the increase is controlled at the political level and inter-ministerial agreements are needed in Santa Fe and Entre Ríos, which makes the automatic increases that the inflationary situation requires to be implemented difficult. “Small monthly increases following the fuel and not big shocks every three or four months, which impact users more,” he commented. “The police and municipalities use fuel as a reference in fines,” he exemplified.
– In times of low traffic, toll collection falls, like now. What do they do?
— That is my despair when I say ‘guys, we have to increase the toll.’ Because fuel continues to increase and the number of vehicles passing through the Tunnel decreases. In other words, we have to strike a balance to know what expenses to face this year. Now, we put out a tender to repave entrance ramps to the tunnel. There we are reserving money for that work; We finish it and continue on the Santa Fe side. Afterwards, pave the tunnel again, delimit lines, put refractory studs, update all the lighting and see what to do with the tiles that have been there since the inauguration in 1969. Then comes all parallel computer renewal; and the solar park.
– They receive contributions from the provincial States.
— No. We don’t ask for anything. I tell you more, for advertising we give an amount and the State distributes advertising with uniform criteria in all media. We don’t even have any say in deciding the advertising companies.
