Governor Pablo Silva Amaya has had to inaugurate an institutional framework that sought decentralization, but without the powers or attributions to achieve it. Furthermore, his management has been crossed by questions regarding the transfer of some resources, as well as the emphases and priorities in the investment of regional funds.
Nobody said it would be easy, and it hasn’t been. The management of the first elected regional governor of O’Higginshas been marked by different milestones and also questions. Pablo Silva Amaya He was elected in a particular political climate, in the same election in which the conventional constituents of the first constitutional process that subsequently failed were chosen, although he had to ratify his election in a second round.
The political scenario that he will face next October when he seeks re-election will be very different, but beyond the electoral aspect, there are questions about his management that could complicate his revalidation at the polls.
The orientation of regional investments
O’Higgins offers complex numbers on economic matters, employment and development, however, according to critics of Silva Amaya’s management, there is no leadership from the regional government that seeks to reverse these negative trends. The region has a GDP that decreases and is among those that show the worst economic development in the country in recent months, and it is not just about numbers, these indicators affect employment, and therefore the social microeconomy, and also companies, particularly SMEs, the undisputed engine of our economy, but it does not seem to be a concern of the current management at the helm of the regional government, as the regional president of the Green Regionalist Party and former deputy Aníbal Pérez in an interview with El Typographer.
Lack of coordination with parliamentarians
It is a mystery to no one that Governor Silva Amaya had the support of the former socialist senator Juan Pablo Letelier, which immediately implies, furthermore, that he is not close to the current senator of the same party, Juan Luis Castrobut neither is it the senator, now independent, Alejandra Sepulveda, who even considered the possibility of raising an alternative candidate for the position in an official meeting held a few months ago in Rancagua. This distance is not only a political problem, it also affects regional management and is not limited only to the official senators, it also extends to the deputies of the coalitions that support the government, who have not hidden their criticism of the management of Silva in many areas, such as his lack of commitment to the central government or to the inspiring principles of the current administration of Gabriel Boric like feminism, as emphasized by deputy Marcela Riquelme on various occasions.
Your own cases agreements
He regional governmentunder the administration of Pablo Silva Amaya has been strongly questioned by the transfer of resources to private institutions, such as the “Healthy Friends” foundationlinked to organizations of people with disabilities in Santiago, one of whose leaders, after working very closely in the regional government with Silva Amaya, was “relocated” to the municipality of Machalí after questioning the Comptroller General of the Republic a transfer of more than $400 million to that foundation, which resulted in the transfer not finally being carried out, but without explanations about the administrative laxity that had allowed the transfer, which only the oversight of the controlling body managed to stop.
The plot of O’Higgins Creates
A few years ago the corporation modality was extended. Municipalities and regional governments throughout the country looked for forms of financing and spending possibilities outside the rigid norms of Public Law and established corporations. It was also done in O’Higgins, and an example is the Corporation O’Higgins Creates, which seeks resource management for creative entrepreneurs from the world of art and culture. However, over time, it began to receive financing, not against specific projects in its area, but for its normal operation, and ended up being completely financed with resources from the regional government, which reached the point that, during the Silva administration Amaya, who also chairs the board of directors of the corporation, in which numerous socialists or former socialists also worked, intended to transfer more than $1.3 billion to O’Higgins Crea, for its operation for two years, although after coming to light , was reduced by half, about $700 million for one year.
However, the last episode of the plot is as surprising as it is disconcerting, the $680 million originally allocated to the Corporation appeared “available” in the last budget report known to the regional councilors. Why?
According to the administrative explanation, O’Higgins Crea has not been able to provide any of the background information that would allow the management of the resources, in fact, as it turned out, the corporation would have stopped functioning in practical terms, which would make it impossible for it to execute those resources which would have motivated the administrative decision to reintegrate them into the regional government budget as “available” to reallocate. However, questions arise.
How is the regional government so sure that O’Higgins Crea will not execute the resources? What happens to all the activities that were supposed to be so important for the development of arts and culture in the region?
Some of these questions could find answers in the arrival of Ximena Nogueira Serrano, former executive director of the corporation to the FOSISin what some sources close to the government describe as the first step of a “landing” in that institution of people linked to O’Higgins Crea, and which would have been one of the reasons for the untimely departure of David Mella of the regional directorate of FOSISby representing a possible obstacle to that process, and also in the exit of Flower Ilyich of the Seremi of Cultures and Heritagewith the subsequent arrival of Christ Cucumidesclose to Silva Amaya and former senator Juan Pablo Letelier in that position.
But other questions remain unanswered: What happens to the property transferred to that corporation by the Ministry of National Assets? How do you explain that just a few months ago it was intended to transfer more than $1.3 billion to an institution that today is practically dissolved?
