Corruption in Roads: From being Kirchnerism's "favorite" for road works, Santa Cruz went from receiving nothing.

Santa Cruz was the beneficiary of 51 road works contracts during the Kirchner administrations. The courts confirmed that they were systematically and regularly awarded to Lázaro Báez. These routes represented 12% of the National Roads Department's budget. Without the agency's officials, the "criminal organization would not have been possible." Now, the Libertarian government has closed the National Roads Department and will tender more than 9,000 km of roads: none of them will be in the Patagonian province.

The corruption confirmed in the Highway Administration case, which led to Cristina Kirchner's first sentence, was one of the arguments for Monday's announcement at the Casa Rosada regarding the closure of the highway agency.

"We can affirm that through the processing of 51 public bidding processes for the construction of road works on national and provincial routes in the province of Santa Cruz, between 2003 and 2015, an extraordinary fraudulent maneuver took place that harmed the pecuniary interests of the national public administration," states the central accusation of the investigation in that file and to which the presidential spokesman, Manuel Adorni, referred.

The decision to close the highway agency was accompanied by another announcement: 9,154.67 kilometers will be put out to tender, distributed across eighteen sections, representing 20 percent of the national highway network but accounting for 80 percent of traffic.

Santa Cruz is not included in this price comparison plan: the priority is "concessions with tolls," official sources told Clarín .

Public works and Santa Cruz have been linked for decades, even in court proceedings. But since Javier Milei took office, the province governed by Claudio Vidal has failed to receive 24.83 billion euros that were earmarked for ongoing projects on central national routes, such as Highways 3 and 40.

For example: The original Caleta Olivia-Rada Tilly highway project, which consisted of three sections, was put out to tender 17 years ago with a budget of $674 million and an average completion rate of 37% . Cristina's government ended up paying two of Lázaro Báez's construction companies 2.892 billion pesos: 329% more. The project remains unfinished.

Adding to this situation is the closure of the National Roads Authority, which has led to the decision not to tender routes in Santa Cruz. The provincial government had a list compiled by the Provincial Roads Agency for more than six months, listing the number of projects for which they would no longer receive revenue from the Casa Rosada (Presidential Office).

There were a total of 40 projects, including several currently underway and others that had been awarded but not yet started. This included projects that were awarded to Lázaro Báez 16 years ago and remain unfinished to date.

The truth is that, for the time being, the national government has decided that these routes, which were emblematic of corruption , will not be put up for bid again. They are not even included in future plans for public bidding for public works.

A completely opposite picture of what happened during the twelve years of the Kirchner administration at the national level. Santa Cruz received 12% of the total budget of the National Highway Administration, and 86% of the contracts tendered in the province ended up in the hands of the same business conglomerate, owned by Lázaro Báez.

In figures, the 51 contracts received by Cristina Kirchner's former business partner represented a budget outlay of 46 billion pesos. Half of these projects were abandoned. This resulted in a civil lawsuit against Cristina Kirchner, Lázaro Báez, and the other defendants in the Roads case: a claim for damages of 22.3 billion pesos, that is, the money paid for roads that were never completed.

The irregularities were numerous: rigged bidding processes, false constitutions of joint ventures with the signatures of the K-businessman, overpricing of 64.72%, awarding of new projects despite systematic non-compliance, and the presentation of the same technical capacity certificate. The aggravating factor is that half of the contracts remained unfinished.

These processes were carried out, for the most part, by the General Administration of Provincial Roads of Santa Cruz (AGVP), pursuant to powers delegated by the National Directorate of Roads (DNV) and, occasionally, by the latter agency directly.

Therein lies the decisive role played by the National Highway Administration in the fraudulent scheme that caused damage to the State of 86 billion pesos , a figure that is currently being updated to determine the final confiscation figure.

The court called it "the State in favor of Lázaro Báez," who also had exclusive payment channels, and by the end of Cristina Kirchner's administration in 2015, the only businessman who was not owed anything was his then business partner.