Development plan includes a loan for $200,000 million –

Author: Natalia Trujillo Varela

Four councilors declared in opposition and independence from the government of James Padilla García presented their concerns about the development plan project ‘Armenia with more opportunities’, presented last week by the municipal administration to the corporation for its corresponding processing.

Criticisms include the lack of precision in the selection of priority projects and works for the four-year period. The absence of a transparent and detailed budget allocation for some works, however, one of the main concerns lies in the fact that the financial plan includes loans worth $200,000 million, which, according to lobbyists, should have a separate procedure, so that the council authorize the mayor to go into debt.

LOAN

Regarding the loan, Councilor Felipe Villamil Ocampo said: “This means that in these four years it is already planned that Armenia will go into debt for two hundred billion, obviously the municipality has the capacity to borrow, but, for example, the previous development plan empowered the mayor to make his loan, not was immersed in a multi-year plan matrix. If today we approve the development plan as the nine articles are, the loan for two hundred billion at once is included, because it is an essential part of that multi-year matrix.”

Among the projects that would be carried out and with which the mayor’s office justifies the city’s debt, it is found that, by 2025, $100,000 million would be used, which would be distributed as follows: $20,000 million in quality, coverage and strengthening of education, for On the other hand, for Infrastructure and road network $45,000 million, transportation security $20,000 million, population access to drinking water and basic sanitation services $15,000 million. “We are saying that the faculty ask us and that in the debate we discuss how pertinent or not it is to do so,” said Villamil Ocampo.

The second loan quota would be $80,000 million for 2026, of which $65,000 million would be allocated for infrastructure and road networks, while $15,000 million would be allocated for the population’s access to drinking water and basic sanitation services. “We are talking that in two years so far we would have a value of $180,000 million and by 2027, a final loan worth $20,000 million for infrastructure and road network, there would be distributed the $200,000 million of the loan that is part of today of the multi-year plan, which should be an article to discuss whether this loan enters the discussion as a separate project or is once an express part of the project as it is today. Our concern is that the faculty has always requested it and if we approve it it would remain an approved project,” mentioned Villamil Ocampo.

The opposition councilor also referred to the request to withdraw article 8 of the draft agreement of the plan, since it has to do with the harmonization of the budget, which is when the budget that the organization has today is taken into account. city ​​from the previous development plan and is unified with the new development plan and the money is distributed in the new items.

“But today there is a ruling 036 of 2023 and there is also a document from the Ministry of Finance that says that the council cannot authorize harmonization within a development plan, what the ruling says and what the ministry says is that the mayor’s office must present a new project to request harmonization and that we begin the discussion of each of the budget items to be able to define them and be approved, that is why we are going to request that article 8 be withdrawn, because that cannot remain immersed in the plan. developmental”.

On the other hand, Villamil Ocampo insisted that the project could hardly be approved because it contains generalities and there are articles of the development plan that have large annex documents that cannot be modified. “That was the first question that was asked to the administration and that the presidency of the council has already asked because it is difficult to approve a project of these conditions. Another request is that the financial plan be an article and not an annex.”

Another of the councilor’s concerns is that there are nine projects of great impact, of great importance, but there is no clarity on how they are going to be financed. These are the Maloca Indígena, the San José sports project, the construction of the animal welfare center, the transformation of Red Salud Armenia, the creation of the Armenian food bank, the construction of two community centers for caregivers, the strengthening of the El airport Eden, the aerial cable and public transportation system for 5 kilometers, and the construction of the covered coliseum for weightlifting.

Another of the concerns raised has to do with the long-term review of the Territorial Planning Plan, POT, and its role in the development plan. In addition, the councilors say that the four valorization works that this government have not established are must be carried out, a commitment that is agreed before the court.

“In addition, Public Companies of Armenia were not involved in this development plan, that is, today EPA is not part of the development plan when in all previous governments the company was part of it, this leaves us with a very big doubt, the president of the EPA board is the mayor of Armenia, profits left by EPA are for Armenia, so we are concerned that since there is nothing from Public Companies then how will the mayor’s office meet the goal of water and basic sanitation,” Villamil Ocampo pointed out in his intervention.

Read: Malecón de La Secreta, will this administration continue with the project?

TECHNICAL ANNEXES THAT CITIZENS SHOULD KNOW

On the other hand, Councilor José Ignacio Rojas Sepúlveda, from the Armenia 2027 coalition, intervened saying that the objective of expressing concerns is to contribute to the construction of a political culture in Armenia. He expressed that the four councilors present have formed a team which they called ‘Another vision of the city’, and said: “Our exercise of opposition and independence is not to become antagonists, but to give the possibility in the exercise of democracy to have another vision, another perspective and other dynamics regarding how to see or how to project the development of the Quindian capital.”

Councilor Rojas Sepúlveda asked citizens in general and different actors in society to be active participants in the discussions involving the development plan so that they know the investment elements and strategic projects that the administration proposes to citizens and if they seek solve current problems.

The construction of municipal development plans throughout the country is done under the methodology of the Territorial Planning System (SisPT), which means associating the government program of the mayors who won with the indicators and goals that are already pre-established from the national government. “That is why it is important to know what the real commitments are going to be generated because the products are going to later become the municipality’s investment projects and what the goals are.”

Like his counterpart Villamil Ocampo, he questioned the “indeterminate” projects, while highlighting that the issue is not the number of articles that the development plan may contain, but rather what decisions are being made within that development plan and how they are in the technical annexes.

“It is important to note that in the initial review that we have done, some elements that are important within the dynamics of development for Armenia are not clearly exposed in the development plan, we are not saying that they are not there, what we want to propose is that All people accompany throughout this month the discussion, the debate and the study that is going to be done, since topics such as territorial associativity do not appear as a goal or purpose in the plan, nor does the progress or closure of the project appear. Strategic Public Transportation System”.

In turn, councilor Jonatan Rojo Zuluaga expressed his position and said that it is important for citizens to control the document and expectations to verify if it really complies with people’s requests and a check is not being delivered and approved to the administration. in white.

“The main problem or concern of many Armenians is the issue of public investment, what is happening with the 2.7 billion pesos of public budget within the document, if it meets the needs and if there will be an effective response to what it really requires. the city and that it does not happen that the money is lost, squandered or remains in the pockets of those who must fulfill political favors.”

Given the considerations made by the councilors, this medium tried to contact the Planning Secretariat, but did not receive a response. However, the municipal administration, through a video published on its social networks, explained: “This plan is based on a new methodology, according to the territorial planning system and the parameters of the National Planning Department, complying with all the criteria. legal and regulatory at national and international level. The methodology of the territorial planning system facilitates the study of the document, having as a source of information its annexes that energize the sectorized reading and focusing on each component of the plan from the financial, programmatic and administrative aspects, thus guaranteeing citizen participation and The problems from each sector are included, turning the plan into a dynamic and innovative inclusive document.”

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For his part, the mayor of Armenia, James Padilla García, on his Instagram account noted “’Armenia with more opportunities’, this is the motto of our Development Plan, because it is a plan that is fair to the needs of Armenians, inclusive. , where the neighbors and all sectors of the city participate and, as an example of that, today we met with Asocomunales, from commune 2, with whom we discussed issues of security, road signage, state of parks, among others, “They are of great importance to the community.”

It is worth mentioning that Councilor Álvaro Jiménez Giraldo, who became vice president of the corporation after declaring himself in opposition, did not attend the called meeting.