Odebrecht made state land deals

THE PRICE  of  an electrical transmission line built by the Brazilian company Norberto Odebrecht, bounded  from $233 million to $285 million as the company  negotiated and paid compensation to the owners of properties affected by the construction licensed by the electric transmission company Etesa.

The past administration awarded the public project project to Odebrecht. The contract included a provision that Odebrecht would be responsible for the appraisals, acquisition and registration in the Public Registry of the land needed for the project.

In June 2015, Etesa’s t management limited this practice, through an amendment to the contract, which established that the amount to be paid as compensation for the acquisition of easements needed to be approved by Etesa.

Iván Barría, Etesa’s director , who was replaced after the recent power outages, said that this amendment removed the company from the allocation of compensation, and a 15 percent surcharge was imposed on the company  in case the total amount exceeded $7 million.

The total amount was more than $50 million, and there are still two properties that need to be purchased.

The extra costs have increased the price of the project from $233 million to $285 million.