The Mayor’s Office of Ibagué declared this week total non-compliance by the Puente Carrera 5 consortium, responsible for the construction of the 60th Street elevated bridge.and warned that the non-execution of this project caused damage to the city.
Besides, imposed a fine of $3,914 million that the partners of this consortium must pay: Olaguer Agudelo Prieto, who has 10% of the participation and was the legal representative at the beginning of the work, and Roberto Gutiérrez, majority shareholder with 90%.
But in this failed infrastructure project, not only the Mayor’s Office of Ibagué will appear as a victim. There are also at least 30 former workers and suppliers to whom they owe $1,000 million for services and supplies that they lent for the work, but that, today, no one responds to them.
Most of them were hired by local engineer Olaguer Agudelo, who led the project in its initial phase. He recruited all the human talent and advanced commercial negotiations with well-known local companies, but, apparently, he was only interested in quickly processing the accounts of two suppliers.
Once the Infrastructure Secretariat approved the disbursement of the only advance that the project had, about $3,000 million, Agudelo promptly paid $1.6 billion to the companies: Apia Constructores SAS and Silso LTDA, to carry out works on the stormwater network in the area of 60th Street. with Fifth career and the management of the project’s human talent, respectively.
Those companies turned out to be owned, at least on paper, by Sergio Agudelo and Betsy Agudelohis son and his wife, as revealed THE SENSE OF SMELL last February 25. (See: This is how they diverted $1.6 billion from the 60th bridge to relatives of Olaguer Agudelo)
These transfers, which according to the Mayor’s Office of Ibagué, it is not known exactly what they were invested in, They brought well-being and prosperity to the Agudelo family.
In January of this year, Olaguer and his son Sergio opened a restaurant in an exclusive commercial area of Cartagena, a place where they periodically go to chat with their guests.while in Ibagué they claim to be going through a difficult economic situation.
Did they misrepresent their financial capacity to win the contract?
While the lawyers of the Puente Carrera 5 consortium try to divert the legal discussion by arguing that the designs provided to them by the Mayor’s Office of Ibagué to carry out the work were not well prepared and that That is why they failed to comply, there is compelling evidence that would demonstrate that the root of the failed project was a lack of liquidity.
Olaguer Agudelo Prieto and Roberto Gutiérrez received the contract and neither would have wanted to put a peso out of their pocket. The bet of the two would have been to ‘anchor’ the work with the twists of the Ibagué Mayor’s Office, which had authorized an advance of $11,000 million, but only disbursed $3,000 million.
According to former employees of the consortium, The few salaries that were paid were canceled by the Apia company, owned by Sergio Agudelo.whose mission was supposedly to carry out complementary works on the 60th bridge.
“There is evidence of transfers from Apia Constructores SAS to the consortium workers. That was a total administrative mess. And now: how can they explain that a subcontractor paid the salaries of the company that hired them? This proves, once again, that the use of the resource transferred from the advance to a supposed “supplier”, such as Apia, was used to solve the lack of budget for the administration of the consortium and not to execute work,” said one of the sources consulted by THE SENSE OF SMELL.
So, it is clear that The Puente Carrera 5 consortium would never have had the interest or financial capacity to build the elevated bridge on Carrera Quinta and Calle 60a work that had to be delivered on December 28 of last year, and for which progress was barely 5.67%.
Complaints before the Ministry of Labor and Ibagué courts
The other victims of the 60th Street Bridge have taken administrative actions against the consortium partnersdue to little interest in responding to the obligations acquired.
Engineers, administrative staff and construction assistants claim the payment of salaries, settlements and compensation for nearly $400 million.
Furthermore, according to the evidence delivered to this media, It is estimated that the contracting firm owes about $45 million in social security contributions.
The claims are being processed before the regional headquarters of the Ministry of Labor and several labor courts in the city.
“Olaguer is washing his hands saying that the person who must answer them is Roberto Gutiérrez, the majority partner of the project. And Roberto says that the responsibility fell on Olaguer, since he was the one who hired us,” said one of the victims, who asked not to be cited in this report.
Others, like Jaime Barragán, former employee of the consortium, Yes, he publicly presented his case and revealed the drama they experienced.
“One month they paid me, one month they didn’t. That was intermittent. “I am retiring in the month of September (2023), I submit my resignation letter on September 15 and to date they have not paid me my settlement, they have not made payment of any type of debt,” said Barragán.
José Warles Fernández faces the same situationanother former worker.
“They owe me the settlement for the eight months of work, they owe me part of the fortnight of the last fortnight of December because they did not pay us everything. They owe us three months of health and pension that they deducted from our payroll, they did not pay us anything. They also didn’t give us a dismissal letter or anything. Mr. Olaguer went out there saying on a radio station that he does not owe anything to anyone.”
Suppliers in trouble
Several Ibagué companies are also among the victims of this failed project. The Puente Carrera 5 consortium owes about $550 million to three large subcontractors and even the municipal waste dump.
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JE energy and technology SAS: It was the subcontractor that built the provisional electrical network and cable operator crossing, it executed almost 100% of its obligations, and it is owed $200 million. Julio Pinzón, owner of the company, initiated legal action.
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Ballen B and Cia: It was the subcontractor that supplied the machinery and labor for the road improvement activities. He sued the consortium for outstanding payments exceeding $100 million.
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Icadel Engineering SSS: was the subcontractor that provided the topographic service to the consortium. He was never paid, not even a single month. They are owed $100 million.
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La Ponderosa Dump: They are owed more than $100 million. However, since the engineer Olaguer Agudelo has more works in Ibagué and they required his services, they had to retain their dump trucks with rubble to force them to pay. Currently the debt is approximately 40
millions.
THE SENSE OF SMELL learned, from other suppliers who asked not to be identified, that Olaguer Agudelo and Roberto Gutiérrez owe another $100 million to asphalt supply companies and to the owners of the house that they converted into an office on a street next to the work.
The Agudelos were bad in Ibagué, but they show prosperity in Cartagena
While in Ibagué the contractor Olaguer Agudelo and his son Sergio say they are facing financial difficulties and are not responsible for the debts they left, In Cartagena they opened a restaurant bar in the exclusive area of Getsemaní.
This is the Cartagena DF establishment where they offer typical Mexican food and drinks.. The members of the Agudelo family usually travel there with their guests from Ibagué.
The restaurant was inaugurated in January of this year, just when Mayor Johana Aranda’s term began. who decided to suspend the contract and, subsequently, declare its total breach.
For the premises, sources in Cartagena reported, The Agudelos pay $10,000,000 in rent and Sergio, the son, appears at the head of the business. and subcontractor of Olaguer Agudelo.
According to Chamber of Commerce of the capital of Bolívar, the Cartagena DFSAS establishment was registered on December 29, 2023, Its address is Carrera 10 Calle San Andrés #30-47 and reported authorized capital of $500 million.
Sergio Andrés Agudelo Agudelo appears as the main legal representative and as substitute Edward Erminso Álvarez León.
Everything indicates that after the disaster of the 60th bridge, the Agudelo family would have decided to start in the gastronomic sector, not only in Cartagena, since they are close to opening a fast food restaurant in Ibagué.
The question that the Attorney General’s Office, which is investigating the contract for the 60th Street elevated bridge, will have to answer is: What was the $1.6 billion that the Agudelo family stole from the advance paid by the Ibagué Mayor’s Office invested? Not much is known about the criminal process.
