Kicillof awards a multimillion-dollar contract to a company linked to Grupo Indalo

The government of the province of Buenos Aires (governed by the communist Axel Kicillof) approved a multimillion-dollar contract in favor of a company linked to Grupo Indalo, a business conglomerate led by Cristóbal López and Fabián De Sousa, both with judicial records for alleged corruption in various high-profile cases.

The decision, made through a public tender, reignited questions regarding the relationship between the Kirchnerist administration and companies close to former political and commercial partners of the ruling party.

The award was made by the Buenos Aires Ministry of Public Communication, headed by Jésica Rey. According to the tender documents, the company La Corte SA was the sole beneficiary of the tender, whose purpose is the "provision of comprehensive service and satellite distribution of audiovisual content with mobile production units and point-to-point conference sets, as well as the provision of a production, recording, and live broadcasting studio for audiovisual content". The contract amounts to $1,491,752,880, a sum that will be covered with public funds.

The file was endorsed by the Undersecretariat of Production and Content and by the Undersecretariat of Government Communication Planning, which approved the incorporation of state-of-the-art equipment, including drones, professional lighting, and mobile units. The magnitude of the expenditure drew the attention of the opposition, given the history of ties between La Corte SA and Grupo Indalo.

The conglomerate of López and De Sousa has been at the center of multiple judicial investigations. In the Oil Combustibles case, the judiciary examined a tax debt exceeding $8,000 million for the non-payment of the Fuel Transfer Tax (ITC). According to the accusation, those funds were allegedly used to expand the business group with the complicity of AFIP. Although López and De Sousa were acquitted, Ricardo Echegaray, former head of the tax agency, was convicted in 2021 of defrauding the State.

Another relevant case was Los Sauces, where alleged irregularities in real estate transactions of the Kirchner family were investigated. In that case, rental contracts were detected between Grupo Indalo companies and the former president's firm, although the oral trial never progressed.

Meanwhile, in the "notebooks of bribes" case, López and De Sousa were prosecuted for being part of a criminal organization together with Cristina Fernández de Kirchnerfor collecting bribes related to public works.

In December 2017, Judge Julián Ercolini ordered the arrest of both businessmen, a measure confirmed by Claudio Bonadio. However, in 2019 they regained their freedomafter the Federal Chamber set bail at $60 million each.

Given this background, the decision by Axel Kicillof's administration to award a contract of nearly $1.5 billion to a company linked to Grupo Indalo raises political suspicions and reopens the debate on transparency in the management of public funds in the province of Buenos Aires.