Argentina renationalises country’s postal service
The government on Monday issued a decree creating the Official Postal Service of the Argentine Government, which will be run by the government until it can be privatized.
The measure published Monday in the Official State Gazette establishes a deadline of six months for the service, which was in private hands until last November, to once again come up for bid.
When the decision was announced last Friday to create the new postal service, a corporation funded entirely by the government, Planning Minister Julio De Vido said privatization of the entity had been postponed indefinitely.
On Nov. 19, 2003, the government cancelled the concession previously granted to the Socma consortium, owned by Italo-Argentine Franco Macri for “repeated failure to comply” with the contract, signed in August 1997.
The contract was cancelled three days after Correo Argentino (Argentine Mail) filed for bankruptcy, when the administration demanded 450 million pesos (approximately $151 million) for failure to pay rights.
When the concession was cancelled, the government gave Correo Argentino 180 days to normalize its financial position and begin a privatization process. On Monday, the postal service was given another six months to resolve the problem.
The decree, signed by President Nestor Kirchner and his entire Cabinet, states that “until it is privatized” the Official Postal Service will “provide all postal, monetary and telegraph services,” formerly provided by the concessionaire.
On Friday, De Vido said the postal service would be headed by the same authorities who were named when it was taken over, and said that “it has a surplus and is profitable” after nearly seven months of state control.
Macri’s consortium had a 69.2 percent share in Correo Argentino, created in August 1997, when the old Empresa Nacional de Correos y Telegrafos (National Mail and Telegraph Co.) was privatized amid allegations of corruption.
Other shareholders included Banco Galicia (14 percent), the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (5 percent) and company employees (11.8 percent).
Postal service privatization stirred one of the biggest controversies and scandals in the administration of ex-President Carlos Menem, who sold off all the country’s big government-run companies during his term of office (from 1989-1999).
