In a press conference yesterday with union leaders Ramon Figuereo and Juan Hubieres along with Administrative Secretary of the Presidency, Pedro Franco Badia, the government announced changes in its Plan Renove. Plan Renove is a program to improve public transit that has been questioned for irregularities. In its first phase, it calls for the import of 5,000 vehicles at a cost of US$150 million with the state guaranteeing the loans. Franco Badia announced that commissions will no longer be paid and those millions will help reduce the price of the vehicles. He also announced the creation of a National Transport Council to replace the commission in charge of the plan. He also suspended the AMET order that requires unionised taxi drivers to operate on alternate days until the program goes into effect. He also said that the government decided to reduce from 300 to 100 the number of jeep-type vehicles that will be imported. And the government decided to cut in half the order to Breica, the Brazilian company responsible for importing the first “pollitos” or Nissan yellow vans purchased during the Fernandez government. It also decided not to purchase vehicles from Kia Motors or Angulo Abierto companies, as they did not participate in the original tender. The purchase order will be distributed fairly among the companies participating in the tender, said Franco Badia. He did not address the import of cargo vehicles, such as large cargo trucks and fork lifts that was also criticized since the plan is to modernize public transport. The new decisions followed complaints of widespread corruption made by influential union leaders Figuereo and Hubieres who also lobbied for a greater share of the Plan Renove. Photos of smiling union leaders, including Figuereo and Hubieres appear in the press today. Neither of the former decision makers of the Plan Renove, Ramon Emilo Jimenez and AMET director Oneximo Gonzalez, attended the press conference.
