He Government of Uruguay announced this Wednesday that it will terminate the contract signed in 2023 with the Spanish Cardama shipyard for the construction of two ocean patrol vesselsafter detecting alleged irregularities in the guarantees of the agreement.
The president of Uruguay, Yamandú Orsi, stated in a press conference that there are indications of “a scam or fraud against the Uruguayan State” and ordered civil and criminal legal actions to be initiated and signed a resolution to execute the guarantee of faithful performance upon its expiration.
The president indicated that the Uruguayan ambassador to the United Kingdom was instructed to appear at the offices of the company that acted as guarantee and added that based on what arose from that instruction, it was decided to file a complaint with the Civil and Criminal Justice Department.
Uruguay terminates contract with Spanish shipyard Cardama due to possible “fraud” in the purchase
The deputy secretary of the Presidency, Jorge Díaz, explained that in the contract between the Uruguayan State and Cardama it was established that within a maximum period of 45 days the Spanish company had to present a guarantee of faithful compliance with its obligations.
“Cardama did not comply within the established deadline and was requesting successive extensions (…) The 45 days turned into eleven months. In that process Cardama initiated seven guarantee validation processes, all of them were rejected,” he pointed out.
In that sense, he added that – once the deadline had expired – he presented a guarantee of faithful compliance from the company Eurocomerce Ltda., based in the United Kingdom, which was accepted despite not complying with what was established in the contract.
“Given the imminent expiration of the deadline, because on September 22 Cardama should have told us what the new guarantee was, the President of the Republic decided to start the process of executing the guarantee and gave instructions to the ambassador in the United Kingdom to establish himself in the offices of the company Eurocomerce Ltda. in the United Kingdom for the purposes of formally notifying the company to deposit the guarantee money in an account in the name of the State. Uruguayan,” he explained.
He added that the company never operated at that address and that a legal study informed Uruguay that Eurocomerce is “in the process of liquidation” and is ready to be removed from the registry.
“There are strong indications that this company is a paper company and that we would be facing a fraud against the Uruguayan State since this guarantee would not exist,” Díaz stressed.
He added that given “this situation, the president decided to begin the contract termination process due to non-compliance with the obligations of establishing a guarantee of faithful performance to Cardama.”
On December 15, 2023, the Ministry of Defense of Uruguay signed the purchase contract for two ocean patrol vessels from the Spanish Cardama shipyard for $92 million.