Fiscal board increases highway concession P3 to the maximum payable

The increase in the contract with Metropistas is $115 million over the previous amount of $1.15 billion, documents showed.

By The Star Staff

The Financial Oversight and Management Board has approved an increase to $1.26 billion, the maximum payable amount of a public-private partnership (PPP) concession contract, to operate toll highways PR-5 and PR-22, according to a recent letter.

The increase in the contract with Metropistas is $115 million over the previous amount of $1.15 billion, documents showed.

The letter sent by Jaime A. El Koury, the oversight board’s general counsel, to Highways and Transportation Authority (HTA) Executive Director Edwin González Montalvo notes that the original contract stems from a competitive procurement process issued by the Puerto Rico Public-Private Partnerships Authority on June 15, 2010 for the operation, management, maintenance, construction, rehabilitation, and tolling of toll roads PR-5 and PR-22.

The contract has a maximum payable amount of $1.15 billion and a term lasting from its date of execution of Sept. 26, 2011 to Sept. 26, 2051.

“The contract has been amended six times, increasing the maximum payable amount by $115 million to $1.26 billion without altering the term,” the letter notes. “The proposed amendment, which constitutes the seventh amendment to the contract, incorporates additional language … providing that the concessionaire shall have the right, upon notice to HTA and at its own expense, to enter into a new electronic toll collection (ETC) service contract for the provision of tolling services in respect of the island network, or to self-perform any or all of the services contemplated to be otherwise provided under the new ETC service contract.”

The language aims to ensure consistency between the contract and the new public-private partnership contract for the concession of toll roads PR-20, PR-52, PR-53 and PR-66, as amended and approved with observations by the oversight board on Dec. 8, 2023, in reference to the financial close of the PPP contract.

The concessionaire will procure the new ETC service contract through a competitive procurement process, the board said, noting that the proposed amendment does not alter the term or maximum payable amount.

Debtwire Municipals notes that in December 2023, Puerto Rico Toll Roads reached financial close on the public-private partnership for the PR-20, PR-52, PR-53 and PR-66 toll roads.

Meanwhile, the oversight board also approved increasing the maximum payable amount to KPMG to almost $10 million to audit the commonwealth’s financial statements, according to a separate letter to Puerto Rico Treasury Department Assistant Secretary of Administration Josué Cardona.

The proposed amendment, which constitutes the second amendment to the contract, contemplates the audit of the financial statements of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2023.