Juan Carlos Jobe, a former minister in Sebastian Piñera’s government who headed the energy and mining portfolio, criticized the “gas at a fair price” experiment, comparing it to lithium.
Former Energy and Mines Minister Juan Carlos Jobe has given a grim analysis of the criticized test plan “Fairly priced petrol” has incorporated Enap into this market.
Remember, the government of President Gabriel Boric recognized that the program meant spending the state $117,000 for every ball delivered last year.
The state-owned company has developed this initiative on behalf of the Department of Energy to benefit 40% of the most vulnerable households in San Fernando, Chiguayante and Quintero.
The plan aims to benefit 3,000 households from the cadastral created and distributed by the Department of Energy, the Free Municipal Association and the Association of Municipalities that Provide Gas at Fair Prices, based on the Department of Energy’s Social Register. I was there. development, society, family.
“Fairly priced petrol”
in a conversation with emorPiñera said the case “is an example of a trend we have already seen in government, the tendency to think that the state solves all problems.”
In Jobe’s opinion, this is done “without being conscious or aware of the limits to which the state has to do something.”
“Many of us warned that Enap had little chance of success because it didn’t have the skills, knowledge and experience to succeed in the liquefied gas retail market,” the former official said at the time.
In line with these lines, he stressed that “the same symptom is seen in the government’s tendency to ask the state to control the lithium business, which the government does not know about.”
“Betrayed expectations”
Jobe also added: “There was a lot of frustration with people’s expectations here as it was announced in a big way in the name of a very important person in the government that this was a plan that would reach thousands of families.” It pointed out. Then the gas problem will be solved. And managing the expectations of people, especially those in vulnerable sectors hit hardest by rising gas prices, is very complex. ”
“I think this result is yet another episode for these people that politicians promised but later failed to deliver on. It is worrying at a time when there is a sense of disconnection and distrust in the
According to the former secretary of state, the controversy “undermines Enap’s corporate governance and, at heart, It is a manifestation of the government’s sudden intervention in the management of companies with corporate governance. We have perfected it over the years. Companies must operate autonomously and respect corporate governance, so they must be very careful. ”
“The pilot plan ended up being a disaster.”
It should be remembered that last year Boric’s Energy Prime Minister Claudio Wepe withdrew a bill to regulate the gas market promoted by the government of Sebastian Pinera, with the aim of correcting and improving it.
In this sense, Jobe said, “The government withdrew the bill we put forward to improve the regulation of the gas market and suffered more than a year of losses on this issue. This is the National Economic Prosecutor’s Office (FNE). That’s what I said I had to say,” he said. It is done to make the market work for the benefit of the people. ”
As a result, Piñera questioned the role played by then-Segpuré Party leader Giorgio Jackson in the pilot program.
“The primary job of Minister Segpres is to handle legislation in Congress. He withdrew the project from Congress and began intervening with Enap to carry out this pilot plan, which ended in a fiasco. , despite all the warnings given to him. There is nowhere to rate this episode positively,” the former official said.
resubmit the project
Regarding what is to be submitted to the executive branch, Joben said, “The government has sent a very clear signal that it will respect Enap’s corporate governance and seek to repair and heal the damage caused by this project. I need to,” he commented.
Therefore, he also said La Moneda “needs to resubmit the bill to amend the regulation of the liquefied gas market”. The bill put forward by our government was withdrawn, but it was basically a recommendation of the National Economic Prosecutor’s Office rather than from our government. ”
“The government has to bring this bill up, add urgency and deal with it as soon as possible. That’s the top priority,” said the former energy and mining minister.
Source: Biobiochile
