A publication from the newspaper Tiempo Argentino, this Saturday the 13th; points out that the “Government of Río Negro signed a secret contract with a foreign state company in which it agreed to transfer the intellectual property over the water and geological information of the province,” which “ guaranteed immunity to its personnel and assumed responsibility and costs.” about the damages that the company could cause” , and that, in addition; “agreed to submit any disputes to private arbitration in England under the laws of that country .” Committing in this sense, “to maintain the absolute and indefinite confidentiality of all the terms of that agreement of questioned legitimacy.”
This is the contract that former governor Arabela Carreras (2019-2023) signed with the Israeli state water company Mekorot in February 2023, with the declared purpose of carrying out a consultancy to design a Master Plan for the management of water resources and the sanitation in the province . The plan must contemplate the challenges of climate change, design a regulatory authority, calculate the economic value of water, and project a desalination plant on the Atlantic coast, among other objectives.
But the confidentiality and secrecy with which the contracting was handled, disproportionate for a simple consultancy and advice, raises justified questions that feed the myth about the intentions and real interests of the Mekorot company and the role of the State.
According to Tiempo Argentino , in addition to Río Negro; There is a version that eleven other provinces signed similar agreements.
“The extreme of absurdity happened in Chubut last April, when the Government of Ignacio Torres denied in writing to Parliament the existence of the agreement with Mekorot, which he had personally signed two weeks before,” the media accuses.
Tiempo Argentino revealed on Saturday, for the first time and “in full, the terms of that controversial contract to which it agreed thanks to the tenacious demand for public information carried out for months by a handful of legislators from Río Negro, and which finally “The provincial government was forced to respond.”
The first request was from the Peronist legislator Ayelén Spósito, and due to the lack of response it was reiterated by her colleagues from the Vamos con Todos bloc, Magdalena Odarda, José Luis Berros, Fabián Pilquinao and Luciano Delgado Sempé, seconded by Patricia Mc Kidd and Santiago Ibarrolaza , from the PRO, and by the libertarian César Domínguez.
The agreement is based on a Framework Agreement signed in 1982 between the last dictatorship and the State of Israel, and is presented as an 18-month consulting contract for a Water Resources Master Plan at an overall cost of 1.5 million. dollars, which will expire next October, but can be extended at a price of 72 thousand dollars per month.
Mekorot's work is financed by the Federal Investment Council (CFI), which is the main signatory of the contract and , as a political intermediary and technical body, had a fundamental role in the management of the previous agreements that led to the contracts signed by the provinces.
The one in Río Negro has two parts. On the one hand, the contractual clauses that the sources consulted by Tiempo Argentino consider illegal and even unconstitutional, and on the other a set of annexes with the work plan and objectives that must conclude with a final report from Mekorot .
One of the most delicate clauses is the eighth, on the intellectual property of information on the natural assets of the province. The point says: “The contracting party (Río Negro) will be the exclusive owner only of those deliverables (refers to reports) delivered by the consulting firm (Mekorot).” To eliminate doubts, it specifies: “Nothing herein provides the contracting party with any right over the intellectual property of the consulting firm (including the intellectual background).”
To do its work, Mekorot must have water information currently in the hands of the State, and also carry out a deep x-ray of the soil and subsoil to compile all water courses, both surface and underground, determine their potability and possibility of extraction and use. .
According to this eighth clause, Mekorot will be the sole owner of all that information and will decide in its reports what Río Negro will be able to know, and what will not, about its own natural assets.
The strict confidentiality imposed by the contract violates the constitutional imperative on transparency and publicity of Government acts: “None of the parties may disclose at any time and for an indefinite period the information obtained from the other party as a result of the contract.” explicitly imposes clause ten. It also prohibits the preparation of “any type of press release or advertising material” related to the contract without written consent of the other party.
It even anticipates possible transparency claims and establishes that in the event of being forced to disseminate “confidential information” due to the demands of Justice, the counterparty must be notified sufficiently in advance to “issue a decree” or “request a protection” that prevent disclosure.
“When common natural goods are at stake, and especially public domain goods such as water, the information must be public and everything must be done in the face of society,” emphasized provincial deputy Magdalena Odarda , for whom the provincial government hid this contract that must now be “repealed by the legislature” due to its unconstitutionality.
Odarda understands that Río Negro “is handing over information on its Natural Assets to a foreign State like Israel, which has serious complaints at the international level, by the UN and Human Rights organizations for the water apartheid that it violently imposes on citizens. of Palestine.” And the tool of that apartheid is Mekorot.
Clause 14 of the contract establishes the “Limitation of Liability”. There it is determined that "under no circumstances will the consultant be responsible (...) under any circumstances for special, related or indirect damages" derived from its task. And it expands the impunity: “The consultant releases the contracting party from all responsibility for damages and losses that the company and its staff may suffer, and completely exonerates it, ensuring its indemnity, and freeing it from all liability for any claim that may arise from the application of the contract".
Point eleven, the “Arbitration Clause”, resolves that “in the event of unresolved disputes, a sole arbitrator in England will be resorted to, in accordance with the regulations of the International Chamber of Commerce”, while in the legal references it imposes that the contract “ “It will be governed and interpreted in accordance with the laws of England,” the only country on the planet confronted by sovereignty claims with Argentina.