QCOSTARICA – On Tuesday, October 25, President Rodrigo Chaves and the Minister of Transport, Luis Amador, signed a decree that sends a vehicle with more than one serious (grave) fault to full re-inspection and at full cost.
The decree was published, almost unnoticed, on October 26 in La Gaceta.
That is totally different from that promised by the government months ago and the proposal by the DEKRA company, chosen to operate the vehicular inspection service or RTV in the country.
Read more: The governmentirosos got some ‘splainin’ to do!
In a report by La Nacion, Sergio Nogueira, DEKRA representative in Costa Rica, told the newspaper he rejected that this change was made to benefit his company and recommended that the Government be consulted on why the change.
La Nacion: When you offered to be the service provider, you offered a free reinspection, but in the end, the reinspection is being charged. Why is this happening?
Nogueira: Indeed, we made an economic proposal with an inspection fee (¢7,287) and zero colones for re-inspection with a single defect, but Aresep published a rate change, reduced the re-inspection fee and put a fee of ¢1,917 in case of vehicles weighing less than 3.5 tons.
La Nacion: So, you did offer free reinspection when it was a single serious defect?
Nogueira: That’s correct, but we also offered an inspection with a higher fee and Aresep regulated us down, the inspection fee is lower and they added a reinspection fee.
La Nacion: The people were told things that did not happen, such as that the reinspection was going to be free, and we also saw several upset drivers because when they did the reinspection they were charged the full rate again. We have invoices from users who went to inspection, did not pass the test, came back later and were charged the full amount under the argument that they had two or more serious faults. Why did that happen?
Nogueira: I would ask the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation (MOPT) what the technical regulations are, I would recommend that you read Decree 30,184 of the MOPT, where it says that when vehicles circulate on public roads if there are two or more serious or dangerous defects must pass a full re-inspection. So, I think there is a confusion here between what you call a re-inspection and what is a full inspection.
“What we do is that if the vehicle has more than one serious or dangerous defect, it receives a complete inspection again, that is, it goes through the entire line and all the components that the legislation establishes are evaluated again.”
La Nacion: That executive decree allows a change at the last minute that works in your favor…
Nogueira: That I could not say, the truth is that I would not dare to affirm that there is a decree that acted in our favor.
La Nacion: But that decree exists and, according to you, that decree modifies the regulations so that vehicles with two or more serious offenses have to go through a complete inspection. Isn’t that a benefit for you?
Nogueira: I would ask you to ask the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation, which is the one that issues executive decrees. We are not an authority, nor do we establish the guidelines for inspections. In all the countries in which we operate, we follow the guidelines established by the governments.
La Nacion: Wouldn’t it be consistent to comply with what you offered and later, if changes are required, request rate readjustments?
Nogueira: Well, I don’t see it that way, because we made a proposal with an estimate, we don’t have the costs defined with the real operation, when economic proposals are made, they are made with estimates.
La Nacion: So your estimates were up in the air, there was no certainty in what you offered…
Nogueira: I do not agree. We estimate based on volumes.
La Nacion: If you offered one thing and now they come into operation with other terms, isn’t there a breach?
Nogueira: I appreciate your call, the truth is that I ask you to consult the MOPT directly to make these queries, because I am not an authority, nor can I give an opinion…
La Nacion: Are you comfortable with the change in the executive decree?
Nogueira: We do not have an opinion on the decisions made by governments.
La Nacion: Did you lobby for the aforementioned executive decree to be signed?
Nogueira: Some kind of lobby? Well no, not really, we have not done any kind of lobbying with anyone
Read the original article by La Nacion here.
