Port activity will once again come to a standstill on 11 days of the year due to the abolition of the reforms agreed with workers.
Costa Rica's constitutional court has ruled illegitimate a reform by the country's Atlantic Port Development Management Board (JAPDEVA in Spanish) that specified the port union's board of directors. The port union (abbreviated SINTRAJAP in Spanish) had negotiated the reform with the government.
The Supreme Court has annulled an agreement reached with port workers who endorsed the concession of the Limón and Moín port operations.
The ruling also orders the reinstatement of the previous union board of directors, who opposed the concession of port operations to private companies.
The article in Nacion.com indicates that last night the head of the Ministry for Transport and Public Works (MOPT) was, "still unclear what the issues were with the terms and conditions being drawn up by Costa Rica's Atlantic Port Development Management Board (JAPDEVA in Spanish) for the concession of the old piers".
Only one company, APM Terminals, has submitted a tender to build an operate the container port in Costa Rica.
Costa Rica's National Concessions Council has 45 days to evaluate the technical offer and if it meets the bid criteria required the next step is the economic offer evaluation with the contract due to be awarded by the end of the year.
The services requested in the tender comprise those of loading and unloading, handling, storage and container classification, as well as auxiliary services for ships docking at the so-called Atlantic Mega Transhipment Terminal (MTA in Spanish) such as bunkering, towing, piloting and mooring. This project will not carry out any loading or unloading of cargo.
By the end of May the Costa Rican Refinery (Recope) will publish bidding rules for dredging its petroleum dock in Moín.
The entity had first tried to find the provider through public bidding, but the process was declared deserted. As a result, it will now conduct a direct acquisition process, which it plans to conclude by November.
Jorge Villalobos, executive president of Recope, argued that dredging the pier is one of the urgent tasks he will assume once he enters office on May 8.
An assembly of workers from JAPDEVA, the entity who administers ports in the Costa Rican atlantic coastline, voted in favor of conceding the ports to private operators.
Workers also voted to remove the directors of the worker's union, whom oppose private operation of the ports.
"If the meeting is not ruled invalid, a Mediating Group will choose spokespersons to negotiate with the government a $137 million indemnification payment for conceding the ports", reported Nacion.com.
Costa Rica's official newspaper will publish today the bidding rules for the concession of Port Moín.
According to sources from the National Concessions Council, the bidding rules for Port Moín concession should be published today in the Official Gazette, with modifications by the General Comptroller of the Republic. The government was finally unable to tender Port Limón and Port Moín simultaneously, as was the initial idea.
Leadership from the Limón port workers union have so far opposed all offers from the government.
The union known as Sintrajab, which reunites workers from state-owned Japdeva, is in a standoff with the Costa Rican Government, regarding the concession of operation and administration of the ports to a private entity. Said conflict could be solved with a referendum among the workers, as 52% of Japdeva employees requested a secret vote to define whether the concession is accepted or not.
español
7974
