Wilson provided new information about the process, mainly about How the company came to make an offer –since it had not participated in the previous tenders– and meetings that are not part of the files.
In this sense, as recorded in the stenographic version, he said that the frigate captain Gerardo Moreirawho previously represented Lürssen, presented an offer for a “very convenient Spanish shipyard.” “I told him to present the proposal, because the minister’s directive was to get some other option than the Norwegian ships, and in that way he was “He indicated that I should present it to the Ministry of Defense.”
Wilson reported that Moreira presented the offer to Defense and from there he was sent back to the Navy, where he announced the characteristics of the ship that Cardama was offering.
After this, he pointed out that on the anniversary of the Base Lieutenant Commander Ernesto Motto de La Paloma spoke about the subject with Javier Garcia who – according to a document from Wilson’s right-hand man, Marcelo da Silva presented by the Independent Party deputy, Gerardo Sotelo – commissioned a technical report, “interested in the singularities of payment, cost and time that Cardama offered.”
The retired admiral said that in that meeting he told García that it seemed “in order that, before deciding to go for Cardama, be able to have the option that the shipyards” who had submitted proposals had the possibility of reoffer.
After being summoned, eight shipyards presented offers and after evaluating them – with disagreements among the admirals – Wilson raised to Defense what he believed the Navy the best was Cardama’sbut the decision was political. The Ministry then created a advisory committee that also suggested the same.
However, based on a question from the Frente Amplio deputy, Joaquín Garlo, Wilson announced that in the meantime HE There was a meeting with Cardama in a room next to the Defense Minister’s office.
“On the Navy side, the director of Materials participated, I participated, the chief of staff participated, I think the director of the Secretariat, the Financial-Accounting Director, was there, and I don’t remember if the minister was there or not. Basically, Cardama clarified many of the doubts that had arisen from that report that had been made of the visit to the shipyard on the Navy side,” he said.
Garlo pointed out that that meeting would have been on June 13, and the advisory commission’s report was from July 6, so the meeting was before a decision had been made. Several legislators asked him for details about García’s participation, and Wilson said he believed he must have been there but he was not “certain.”
The former commander also reported that They were struck by the fact that Cardama maintained the price when the Navy demanded more benefits.but he assured that he felt like “a child in front of a toy store who asked for one more toy and they said yes.”
“Cardama’s response to that was that the lobbies of IPOs are all managing a very similar price due to profit margins and ‘I’m outside that lobby, and the only option I have is to go lowering the profit margin for the purposes of being able to enter.’”
Hyundai was his favorite
Elsewhere in his appearance, Wilson revealed that the proposal that he liked the most was Hyundai’sbut he suggested Cardama’s because he also valued the price and delivery time.
“Of the options, the one I liked the most was the Hyundai one. It was a ship that exceeded 2,500 tons. Hyundai delivered the two ships together and there was some possibility of negotiating the donation of some material, as Korea has done at some point; it could be a corvette or even the ROU Huracán boat that it donated to us, but it was one of the most expensive and the ones that required the most time for construction. When I started to evaluate, there were a lot of elements to analyze for each one. the proposals and that made me choose Cardama over the one that I liked the most in the first place,” he said.
Regarding the economic situation of the shipyard and its possibility of building what it offered, he said that this It was not evaluated by the Navy.
“The training that we have It does not allow us to make an analysis of whether a shipyard is in a position to build or not or whether the economic situation of that shipyard allows it to face the challenge of what it is proposing as an offer or not.. The Ministry was asked to carry out this investigation; “We have no chance,” he said.
He also pointed out that “when the news came out about the possible bankruptcy of the shipyard,” he spoke to the minister and told him that Defense “had the tools or could hire the people to follow up on it.” “The Navy does not have the possibility.”
The master notebook
Regarding the approval of the master frame plan, which enabled a payment of US$ 8 million in the last days of the administration, Wilson was not precise about why there were two of his letters, which was in contradiction with what Rear Admiral José Ruiz expressed in the Defense administrative investigation.
“As for the difference in dates with Admiral Ruiz, and well, I say what I experienced. He came into my office and brought me the subject of the master notebook. Without the master notebook I was not going to release the payment,” he said.
He also mentioned that at the time he authorized the payment “I was fully convinced that it was the document we were waiting for” and that no Navy officer is in a position to be able to say that, based on the design of a master frame, “that ship is going to have a certain behavior.”
“That is why the Ministry of Defense was asked to hire a naval engineer who could carry out the study of that master frame. We were told no and we agreed that the approval of that frame would come from Lloyd’s Register, as validation.”he sentenced.
