"The Chinese company that built a dam in Ecuador concealed information about cracks in the hydroelectric plant" , 19 July 2022

...The flaws in the hydroelectric plant located between the Amazonian provinces of Napo and Sucumbios have led to Ecuador and Sinohydro being in a legal battle over damages to the state. The Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric project was created during the government of Rafael Correa and was presented as the "largest in the history of Ecuador"...During the government of Rafael Correa, who was in power between 2007 and 2017, construction of the hydroelectric plant began. According to statements to Infobae by Fernando Villavicencio, legislator and president of the National Assembly's oversight commission, the initial project would cost the state approximately USD 900 million. However, in 2010, then energy minister Alecksey Mosquera modified the contract so that the hydroelectric plant would produce 1,500 MW of energy, raising its initial value to USD 2 billion. Mosquera was sentenced for corruption in the Odebrecht scheme in 2018. The former minister accepted having received USD 1 million in bribes from the Brazilian construction company in exchange for contracts...The consulting partnership was made up of Mexico's Federal Electricity Commission (CFE); Mexico's Grupo Profesional de Planeación y Proyectos, Sociedad Anónima de Capital Variable (PYPSA); Consultora Vera y Asociados Cía Ltda (CVA) and Ingenieros Consultores Asociados Cía Ltda (ICA). According to the confidential document, "in 2015, the Consulting Association became aware of certain situations in the material of the Central distributors. Sinohydro had hidden from the Consulting Association and CELEC EP that, since 2012, the eight turbine distributors had cracks that occurred during the manufacturing process"...In February 2019, the Comptroller General of the State established in a report that the work generated economic damage to the country due to the existing cracks and established that "as long as the contractual stipulations are not met, (the State) will refrain from accepting the final reception of the project".... The damage, for which Ecuador filed a request for arbitration against the Chinese company Sinohydro before the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce, exceeds USD 1. 1 billion…