The company awarded the concession to oversee parking meters in Guadalajara is guilty of fraud to the tune of 100 million pesos, municipal officials are saying.
City councilors voted Wednesday to revoke the license given to Metro Meters to administer the 5,693 parking meters in the Guadalajara municipal area. The concession runs until 2020.
According to the city government’s legal department, Metro Meters has failed to provide accurate accounting of money accrued from the meters, as well as fines paid, since winning the contract in 2011.
At a recent press conference, Mayor Enrique Alfaro said the firm has turned over 40 million pesos to the city over the past five years, when auditors calculate the correct amount should have been 140 million pesos.
This week, city hall made public a letter they received from Adán Vázquez Gutiérrez, named as the legal representative of Metro Meters, demanding compensation of 250 million pesos for non-compliance of the contract.
City officials were quick to point out that letter did not contain a masthead with Metro Meters’ name and address, noting that the firm has recently abandoned its offices in an apparent bid to complicate the upcoming legal process. City councilor Marco Valerio Pérez Gollaz of the Citizen’s Movement said he considered the letter to be “further proof” of the concessionary’s fraudulent practices.
At press time it was unclear whether motorists would still be required to deposit money in the meters, or whether the fees would be waived until authorities had determined how the system will be administered.