Millionaire work and VIP decoration: Ferraresi had 11 floors of his ministry remodeled

At a crucial time for Argentina, when the Senate defines the approval of the agreement with the IMF and the Minister of Economy himself, Martín Guzmán, admitted that it does not have the USD 2.8 billion to pay the next due due to the international agency, the Ministry of Development Territorial and Habitat seems to live a parallel reality and ordered a millionaire reconstruction of the building located at 255 Esmeralda Street.

According to the file “EX-2021-123719930-APN-DCYC #MDTYH -APPROVAL OF SPECIFICATION AND PROCEDURE — SERVICE FOR REMODELING MINISTRY OFFICES — PUBLIC TENDER NATIONAL SINGLE STAGE — TURNKEY MODALITY — PROCESS 502-0008-LPU21″, the portfolio led by Jorge Ferraresi requested a turnkey refurbishment for 13 spaces spread over 11 floors of the building.

The call for public tender, which was released by the website El Disenso, consists of 95 pages detailing the details of the work to be carried out on each floor. The remodeling service includes tasks related to dismantling (ceilings, carpets, vinyl floors, gypsum rock plate partitions, furniture, glazed fronts, carpentry, electrical installations), provision and installation of gypsum rock plate partitions, gypsum rock plate ceilings, painting, aluminum and wood carpentry, glass, glass fronts, electrical installation in interior spaces of the building.

The above tasks will be carried out in open-plan offices, closed offices, meeting rooms and collaborative spaces, refreshment spaces and other support rooms, archives, warehouses, storage rooms and workshops that do not require specialized personnel. Also in lobbies, corridors, entrance hall, toilets, and other service premises.

According to what is stated in the document, the work must be carried out within 90 calendar days from the issuance of the Act of Initiation and sets specific working times for each sector.

For example, the remodeling of the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 12th floors must be completed within 45 days of the start of work, the 7th floor within 30 days, and the 9th floor within 15 days.

The work on the 11th floor must be completed in a staggered manner: sector A will have to be ready within 30 days after the work starts and sector B within 15 days. Finally, the work of the 13th must take only 15 days.

The specifications require that the contractor work 7 days a week 24 hours a day and that construction workers perform 3 daily 8-hour shifts: from 8 to 16, from 16 to 22 and from 22 to 8.

Despite all the deployment of personnel, construction materials and supplies that the refurbishment will require, the Ministry ordered that all state employees must attend their jobs in person even if some must be forcibly relocated to other sectors while recondition theirs.

Since he took office, Ferraresi has been very worried about the “look” of the offices that were lucky to him; therefore, he also ordered a new “facelift” of the building. These works include the provision of graphics, body letters, plants, pots, vinyl and other decorative items to give an air of modernity to state offices.

The only thing that remains to be known is what will be the money allocated by the State to complete the work, since it does not appear in the documents of the file.

Ferraresi took over the portfolio on 19 November in charge of the housing issue, after requesting a license from the Avellaneda City Hall. It was one of the ministerial changes that President Alberto Fernández agreed to make following Vice President Cristina Kirchner's claim that there are “officials who do not work”.

From a Peronist family and aligned with Kirchnerism with the arrival of Néstor Kirchner at Casa Rosada, Ferraresi has been a public servant for 30 years and in 2020 he won his third election in Avellaneda, which was currently held by his former Chief of Staff, Alejo Chornobroff.

The Ministry's Explanation

The portfolio led by the mayor of Avellaneda in use of license disseminated a series of arguments to justify the works. As they explained, one of the reasons was that the state agency was created in 2019 and, as a result, “it did not have adequate physical space to carry out its activities”. And they added that, due to the mandatory stop due to the pandemic, “it was impossible to start with the planned work to renovate its facilities.”

In line with this, they clarified that the offices “are rented and are located in a building belonging to the company YPF S.A, located on Calle Esmeralda 255″.

“When the pandemic made it possible to return to face-to-face work, a call for tenders was made to carry out the set-up of the offices and other sectors of the building. Due to the magnitude of the programs contained in the housing policy, the MDTyH went on to have a ten-story structure to carry out its functions, when it was originally only five”, they completed and confirmed that the total investment will be 63 million pesos.

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