The contractor for the Carrera Quinta and Calle 60 bridge finally acknowledged that the project always had flaws in the studies and designs. Observers and experts from Ibagué denounced the planning deficiencies that the project was dragging on, but the former mayor Andrés Hurtado insisted on awarding it in 2023, the last year of his government.
El Cronista.co had access to the recording of the hearing on June 4, in which the administration of Mayor Johana Aranda declared total non-compliance with the Puente Carrera Quinta Consortium and imposed a fine of close to $4,000 million. At said hearing, he spoke Roberto Gutierrez Dainesthe legal representative of the consortium, who assured that the contractor’s non-compliance was due to the Mayor’s planning problems.
“By mutual agreement we have been holding meetings with the entity and the auditor for more than a year where it was clearly established that the difficulties encountered with the studies and designs had to be overcome in order to make the contract viable. That is to saythe contract was stillborn“, stated Gutiérrez Daines.
And he added that: “This contract is stillborn every time With the designs delivered by the administration and with what was contained within the contractual part as such of the same contract, it could not be developed.there was no clarity in it in order to be able to develop it.”
The version provided by the contractor completely contradicted what former Mayor Hurtado always maintained, who blamed the National Institute of Archeology and History (ICANH) and the Regional Autonomous Corporation of Tolima (Cortolima), for the resounding failure of the project. For Gutiérrez Daines, The Mayor’s Office was always at fault and not the other entities..
“There were not complete resources from the Administration to be able to develop the design delivered within it. This means that there was no corresponding money to purchase land to be able to develop the geometric design delivered by the administration,” he argued.
During the hearing, the contractor assured that the Mayor’s Office violated his right to due process with the declaration of total non-compliance. Therefore, he appealed with a motion for reconsideration to try to revoke the declaration resolution.
For her part, the Director of Contracting of the Mayor’s Office, Margarita Cifuentes, called the contractor contradictory for insisting on the execution of the contractdespite considering him “dead”,
“In our opinion, this constitutes a confession of impossibility to execute the contractual object. There is evidence that the executor of the work and the insurer express the intention to continue an agreement of wills under the technical criteria of these two, permeating the execution of the contracted work with a manifest impossibility,” he replied.
Gutiérrez Daines’ statements also contradict what Hurtado said after the declaration of non-compliance, when he publicly asked the Mayor Aranda to launch a new public tender to find a new contractor. According to what was expressed at the hearing, the project requires a profound restructuring to avoid a new failure.
Mayor Aranda has already spoken in that sense, who seems determined to disobey her political boss. “We have several proposals established in our Development Plan. We are going to do a very judicious study where we invite the academy, the different social sectors and we are going to make the best decision for the city,” she stated.
