Portugal’s Auditor’s Court has said that the savings announced by the government for the first P3 road to renegotiate (Costa da Plata) must be evaluated by another section of the court after questioning the accounts presented by the government.
Under the renegotiated contract for Costa da Plata, the cost of the reparations of the road will be transferred to the private sector. The court explained that is not clear how and when the reparation will be done or if this will be under the best financial terms in the market.
The Court also warned that the proposal for a new contract does not show a rigorous clarification of the impact of each modification.
However, it confirmed that the court does not have the power to approve the changes, because they resulted in lower costs.
In July, Portugal’s government started a plan to revise and renegotiate the PPP contracts for the principal road concessions in the country to reduce the cost to the public sector. There are nine contracts modified and the government expects to modify 12 in total.