Diario La Nación / Banco Galicia

Dear Sirs,

We are writing to you with regard to the Prize for Export Excellence competition co-organized by La Nación and Banco Galicia.

According to the corresponding press release, this prize is "in recognition of innovation by companies that export products and services, for having an outstanding track record, for opening up international markets and for applied R&D." The release says that the prize "distinguishes quality, design, technology, creativity and research applied to export products,"etc.

It is in this regard that we wish to express our objection to the prize awarded to Translation Back Office (Translation and Linguistic Consulting in 80 Languages, under the heading of Services).

Translation Back Office is a translation agency that is notorious in the professional translation community for paying low rates to its free-lance translators (rates that are totally at odds with those suggested by all major associations that group professional translators and interpreters, as well as those habitually paid on the local and international markets). It is also notorious for the low wages that it pays to its in-house translating staff.

It is our understanding that since you do not form part of the translating and interpretingcommunity and its associations it is unlikely that you are aware of this information (otherwise, we can only imagine that such a track record could never have been considered worthy of such a prize). For our part, we feel that a company that operates in this way is totally unworthy of a prize of such importance.

The International Association of Professional Translators and Interpreters (IAPTI) was founded to promote the ethical practice of the translation and interpreting profession, and to protect the professional interests of its members. We see it as our obligation, then, to provide this information to the organizers of the Prize for Export Excellence.

Sincerely yours,

Aurora Matilde Humarán

On behalf of the Board of Directors

of the International Association of Professional Translators and Interpreters