Santiago de Cali, June 26, 2024.- During the second debate on political control of the public lighting tender for the city that is in charge of Emcali, the company’s general manager, Roger Mina, did not rule out that in the medium term the entity’s workers can attend to that service.
“I welcome that there is a coincidence in betting on Emcali, in allowing the company to have a different role in the provision of public lighting service, that is why the public lighting tender runs until December 31, 2024, without future validity. for a longer contract. In that period we will present a proposal where Emcali plays a different role, I welcome the proposal that Emcali could operate one area or all, this will depend on a specific proposal,” said Roger Mina, general manager of Emcali.
“But we have to be responsible with the citizens and correspond with the service they deserve and that requires enlistment, which at this moment is not clear, but we can build on the remainder of the year, defining the role of Emcali in the provision of the public lighting by 2025,” said Mina.
Councilors Flower Enrique Rojas Torres, Ana Leidy Erazo Ruiz, Sergio Mauricio Zamora Betancur and María del Carmen Londoño Sanna, requested that one of the three zones be initially awarded to Emcali so that the entity can prepare to manage all of the contracts starting in January 2025, since the workers have been doing this work all their lives and have been trained as technicians and professionals for it with the same money from the company. “The return generated by Emcali must be for social investment,” they noted.
Councilor Juan Felipe Murgueitio Bustamante considered that Emcali is not yet prepared to assume that responsibility at this time, but in these next six months the company can prepare and provide the service. And he conceptualized that dividing the city into three zones can be beneficial for providing better service, as long as there is an effective audit.
Councilor Roberto Ortiz Urueña. reiterated its position of withdrawing the bidding process because from the beginning it has substantive and formal defects in such a clear way that even the Attorney General’s Office is in favor of that request, since there is suspicion of it being a contract designed for the questioned businessman William Vélez who The service has been operating for 24 years and has only modernized 34%.
For his part, Councilor Carlos Hernando Pinilla Malo said he did not understand what the modernization that is intended to be done consists of, since they only refer to the change of lighting and it is not specified who will audit said contract. “In 1998 it was said that to modernize Emcali the neon lights were going to be changed to sodium lights to save 60%. Today, in the year 2024, it is said that to modernize the city’s public lighting we must change the sodium lights to LED and we will save 60%. In other words, history repeats itself,” said Pinilla Malo.
If Councilor Flower Enrique Rojas Torres questioned something, it was the plurality of bidders because he considers that it is half true, since it is a contract in three zones that will be awarded according to the score of the bidders, in the fine print it is allowed that The bidder with the highest score can be awarded the other offers, if the others do not comply and that can be addressed in the bidding.
Councilor James Junior Agudelo Arévalo, recalled that technology advances rapidly and therefore this process must take it into account, since the changes that are going to be made must be for the well-being of the city. “Doing it later will be more expensive and that is why it must be done now, with cutting-edge technology, lights with cameras, with a Wi-Fi system and other accessories that demonstrate that Cali’s public lighting is truly being modernized,” he added.
For Councilor Sergio Mauricio Zamora Betancur, the current hiring process cannot allow any proposal from businessman William Vélez to be taken into account because he is ethically and morally questioned at the national level and has proven to be incapable of providing the service, because in 24 years From labor, the only thing he has done is earn more than $500,000 million and now he wants to be given another $57 billion through a lawsuit.
In relation to the process, Mina clarified, it is an ongoing procedure without award and not a contract. “We don’t know what the final prices we are going to have will be, so we can’t talk about equity detriment either,” said the general manager of Emcali.
Strategic Communication: 21.2.3.247/2024
