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Tele-communication company Telefónica del Peru comes increasingly under scrutiny of the Peruvian government and other organizations.

While Alan Garcia's administration and Congress is working on approving a law that would eliminate basic landline telephone fees, Yhoni Lescano, chairman of Peru's Consumer Protection Commission now accuses the monopolist of having charged illegal fees of non-existent services for Peru's Congress.

Lescano explained that a consultant contracted by Parliament discovered these irregular collections which happened between May 2002 and February 2003. He claimed that Telefónica has only confirmed an amount of S/. 327,000 Soles (US$ 100,000).

“They have acknowledged this charge but, according to estimates of the consultant, these collections continued being made in later months and the amount could reach up to 1.8 million Soles”, Lescano pointed out.

He said other State institutions had similar problems with Peru's main phone company. Under these circumstances, Lescano suggested the cancellation of the contract that the State and the Spanish-owned company signed in 1994.

Peruvian Congress recently approval of a bill to eliminate fixed monthly tariffs charged by telecommunication service providers, mainly Telefónica. The bill still needs to be signed by Peru's new president Alan Garcia, to become law, which remains unclear at this time.