The previous Departmental Administration acquired six mini mule-type vehicles, worth $726 million each, adding a total of $4.3 billion. The chosen brand is Wolswagen and according to the counterparty, it was intended to be Chevrolet, unaware that this company is no longer based in Colombia.
The beneficiary municipalities of this project are: Neiva, Garzón, La Plata, Rivera, Campoalegre and Pitalito.
In order to address droughts
Regarding this problem, the former Secretary of Government, Andrés Mauricio Muñoz, spoke with Diario del Huila and said: “in the previous period and within the framework of this emergency that occurred due to the dry season, which turned Huila into the department with the highest number of hectares burned, a declaration was issued to address it.”
In this order of ideas, Yaguará, Palermo and Neiva became the municipalities most affected by the fires.
“Due to these emergencies, we decreed a public calamity, which generated an exceptional contracting regime, which is applicable due to Law 1562 of 2021, to face all these situations derived from the El Niño phenomenon,” added the former official.
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The provisions for firefighters
“We signed a series of contracts, including equipment for the Fire Departments, which were delivered during the current administration of Rodrigo Villalba, and within these acquisitions, six vehicles were purchased, tanker trucks, cistern-type for the emergency agencies of six municipalities,” said Mauricio Muñoz.
The municipalities benefiting from this project are: Neiva, Garzón, La Plata, Rivera, Campoalegre and Pitalito.
The former secretary added that they made the contract with a company that complies with the requirements demanded by law, and those used by the ‘Colombia Compra Eficiente’ mechanism, with regard to organizational capacity.
“It was a direct purchase, but legal”
“Even though a direct purchase was made, as the decree authorized us at the time, we did it by applying the selection criteria. It is important to say, as we stated in the previous studies and in the documents that support the contract, first of all, that the vehicle has a greater capacity and here we are talking about a tanker truck, whose objective is to take water to remote places, where they do not have the precious liquid, so that a vehicle with a smaller capacity can transport it to them,” said Mauricio.
The former official added that they acquired Volkswagen vehicles, Euro-5. “They exceeded the technical conditions that were included in the investment project, which was intended for a Euro-4 vehicle. We obtained vehicles that are more environmentally friendly, with greater load capacity, and this is what is truly important, because they will be able to transport the liquid to remote places.”
According to the lawyer, this brand of trucks does have representation in Neiva, and it seems that the emergency officials were looking for Chevrolet type vehicles, but this vehicle firm closed its doors and left the country, it no longer has a dealership in this city and that apparently, was the preferred brand.
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It has all the technical features
“The trucks we buy meet all the technical characteristics and at a very good price, you can review them, compare them with other contracts signed in the country and you will realize that we got them at a cost below normal. The treaty was to be celebrated in two and a half months, but it was suspended, since a transfer of the general budget of the Department to the Risk Management Fund had to be made, and in that process we left the entity and it was suspended for this reason.” , explained the former secretary.
The Firefighters have apparently stated that they are not receiving the vehicles at the moment, since it is first necessary to adapt them.
“The only vehicles that were available on the market were these, at very good prices with better technical conditions in each one. They have said that they are going to hold a debate in the Departmental Assembly and I hope they invite us and there we can demonstrate aspect by aspect, what the investment project stipulated, with what was acquired and they will realize that we surpass them in everything. With the same budget, which was to buy a lower quality vehicle, we got better ones,” highlighted the former official.
And finally, he said that changes are being made to accommodate the tanks and other technical specifications.
The former secretary added that this case is already being investigated by the regulatory bodies, but said he was calm because they had obtained better quality cars.
“If you go and study the investment project, if you realize that it was designed for a particular vehicle and how much they did this study, they did not realize that this medium was discontinued and there were better ones on the market,” quoted Andrés Muñoz.
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The voices against
However, almost five months later, a strong controversy has arisen due to the dissatisfaction of the relief agencies with the type of vehicles purchased. After several meetings between the contractor, the Huila Fire Department and the Government, it has been determined that the vehicles will not be received by the fire departments of the municipalities involved.
In this sense, Edison Fernández, Departmental delegate of the Huila Fire Department, expressed his dissatisfaction with the situation: “We feel dissatisfied because the government says that it will execute the contract as it was designed. In addition, we have a concern because the vehicles will be modified in their structure, and this puts firefighting activity and personnel safety at risk.”
Fernández added: “We cannot receive these vehicles under these conditions, they are mini mule type, where the contractor has indicated that modifications will be made to the main chassis anchored with extension screws, and then adapt it. “They are not special fire vehicles, because they do not have the qualities in terms of performance and crews, exposing themselves to an accident in the future.”
Another point of controversy is that the vehicles are already registered as truck tractors, and the intention is to make them compact, which goes against what is established in the National Traffic Code. This situation has generated concern among firefighters and local authorities, who fear that the compromised modifications will seriously affect the functionality and safety of the vehicles in emergency operations.
Given these alleged anomalies in the awarding and execution of the contract, the Huila regional attorney’s office has initiated an investigation and has requested that the Huila Governorate document everything related to the contract.
And according to Edgar Martín Lara, secretary of the Departmental Government of Huila, since he took office in January, the pertinent actions have been taken to temporarily suspend the million-dollar contract for the acquisition of fire vehicles.
