The origin of the story goes back to the government of Néstor Kirchner , with José Pampuro as Minister of Defense, and a few years later to the times of the presidency of Cristina Kirchner and Nilda Garré as head of that portfolio. Kirchner had decided to build in the country, in national shipyards that he was beginning to recover, vessels called POM, Multipurpose Ocean Patrol Vessel , or OPV for its acronym in English ( Offshore Patrol Vessel ). He wanted to replace the already obsolete ARA notices to increase patrolling of the Exclusive Economic Zone when the Chinese fleets were already there preying on our squid to the limit of illegality. And they continue to do so. During Garré 's time the project gained momentum. Defense bought the design for those through the Chilean shipyard ASMAR (Astilleros y Maestranza). IPO of its German peer Fassmer , for 2.7 million euros. Trans-Andean specialists would advise on engineering and training during the construction stage. The project was delayed, like almost everything in Argentina.
In 2010, a bribery and bribery scandal broke out in Germany involving Fassmer . At the first hint of some local media that sought to link the Kirchner government in the affair - absurd because Argentina did not negotiate with the German shipyard but with ASMAR -, the project he paralyzed.
In 2016, Mauricio Macri seeks to reactivate it. The first - and only - thing he receives is the advice of the senior officers of the Navy not to waste time building the patrol boats in the country, but directly buy them from a French shipyard for about 400 million euros as the only offer available, without further ado. At that time, the ineffable Ambito Financiero was propping up, preparing the ground for the proto-scandal that was coming, and interpreted an alleged objection from Macri, to whom "the experience of the state workforce did not satisfies.”
The body of advisors to the presidency intervenes, to verify the suitability of the only offer from the French shipyard that the local marine enthusiasts suspiciously exalt. One of those summoned is the naval engineer Raúl Eugenio Podetti , former owner along with his father, now deceased and also a naval engineer, from the private Sanym shipyard, within an enormous background of decades of business, teaching, research, corporate and academic experience in the subject.Podetti studied and became involved with the OPV project, contributing above all his strong conviction and belief in the possibility of building these and many other vessels in the country, based on his own experience as a builder and as an in-depth knowledge of the sector. .
But at some point in his advice he came across a wall, as absurd as it was impassable. Just looking over that wall helped him confirm, and he says it with all letters, the presence of a focus of corruption entrenched in the dome. of the Argentine Navy. Podetti graciously agreed to an extensive direct interview with Agenda Malvinas about the IPO affair , the first part of which we publish below.
Malvinas Agenda: How did you receive the call to advise the Government in 2016 for the purchase or construction of OPVs? Raúl Podetti: I am a naval engineer, I worked in this all my life, I was born as a naval engineer, just like my father who had his shipyard and was a retired Navy officer. I found a concrete and specific place in which I could develop professionally and also do a contribution to the Homeland. I worked for many years in our shipyard, I was vice president of the Río Santiago shipyard, the largest in Argentina, for almost 10 years I was vice president of the Federation of the Naval Industry. At the end of 2017 I resigned from all those positions of corporate defense and I dedicated myself fully to writing and giving an opinion that was never biased towards belonging to any sector.
Just one day they called me from the Chief of Staff to ask me for an opinion on these ships. I went to Casa Rosada, we had several meetings, they explained to me what they wanted and that's where this topic begins, which is a topic that I have followed since approximately 1994, along with my father. Malvinas Agenda: An account in Puerto magazine of the discussion and outbursts of a Navy officer against you that occurred at the end of 2016, during the Macri administration. Can you mention the names of the officers involved in that meeting? Raúl Podetti: I prefer not to mention them, I know them perfectly, I know their names, I have met with them, I have spoken about them in a very stark way, with the main ones at least. But I have preferred that whoever really wants to know, find out in two minutes.
Malvinas Agenda: Is the figure of around 350 million euros for the four OPVs paid to the French shipyard correct, and that if built in the country it would have cost 60% less? Raúl Podetti: I didn't say it was the construction price in Argentina. In reality, what they first ask me is how much these boats cost in the world.I said that I imagined that the Navy had shown them a market analysis... they told me no, that it was the only alternative, the best price.
