The sung addition to the monster they called the Vallenata Music Cultural Center was already requested and was done right at the beginning of Holy Week, like someone who doesn’t want the thing, like carelessness… But, it is necessary for public opinion to know precisely what it is. what they are doing there, why they are doing it and the consequences of what they plan to do.
This whimsical construction was born from the apparent clamor of the citizens of Cesar because our folklore needed a house of its own. And like everything in this government house, nothing more was missing, it had to be pharaonic, so construction began on July 12, 2021 with a budget of $138,817,668,949 with a period of 22 months (although we all already knew that that It was not going to be the final value and much less the real term).
But since that money, despite the fact that the Government House considers otherwise, is not theirs; A public investment cannot be made, much less of that magnitude, without planning it, that is, without carrying out a Prior Study that provides a minimum of certainty about its relevance, viability, sustainability and costs. In other words; This study should prevent unpleasant surprises.
The previous study of this construction is based on assumptions, hopes and romantic speculations, there is no mathematical support, there is no diagnosis, there is no sustainability plan.
There is nothing in this study that explains, directly or indirectly, how this mass is not going to become an elephant that will have to be fed with our taxes because if it is not with the permanent injection of public resources, the beast will die.
THE EXTENSIONS
Before starting, we will clarify that an extension does not necessarily imply a budget addition and those of this contract until now have been exclusively in time. Already on February 17, 2023, Esther Mendoza, Secretary of Departmental Infrastructure, was in charge of studying the convenience and opportunity of the first requested extension. They ask for it for six months, explaining that exogenous causes led to the importation of steel, an element that occupies 40% of the total financial weight of the project’s budget. They argue that it was inevitable to import steel because there simply was not one in the country due to “the consequences of the COVID 19 health emergency.” Furthermore, “(…) transportation difficulties, the post-pandemic container crisis and the war between the nations of Russia and Ukraine…”.
For the love of God! This must be a very poorly told joke. Those are not exogenous circumstances, they are exotic circumstances.
Luis Alberto Monsalvo took office in the middle of the pandemic. Resolution 385 in which the Ministry of Health declares a health emergency throughout the national territory is from March 2020, and the contract is from May 2021, and the extension request is from 2023.
That is, only then did they realize that we were in a pandemic? Did it take two years to understand that the steel that, in its own terms, weighed 40% of the budget was not in the country?
That is not serious, much less put as an argument to modify a contract in a third world country and in a provincial government, a war between Russia and Ukraine! They go too far, really… But they granted it for 4.5 months and it went from 22 to 26.5 months.
However, on September 18, 2023, they presented a second extension request, this time because, among other things, “(…) seeking greater income that guarantees the sustainability of the Cultural Center.”
Et voila! Furthermore, they state that “(…) it was decided to enable an area on the third floor for the construction of the wax museum…”. Wait… When was that wax museum decided? In the Previous Study? In the first overtime? In the second? Either this was a last-minute whim or it was just another improvisation, but nothing planning.
The Wax Museum thing also takes us back to the beginning, because it makes it clear that the sustainability of that mass had never crossed the mind of either the person who ordered the expense or the person who signed the contract.
And pay attention, because no one has said tiger, but the stripes are quite painted. Until now no one has talked about money but about time; but you don’t need to be an expert to infer that deep down the thought was: this is going to cost more…
And give us a minute, we don’t have time: the third overtime is coming. And he says: “(…) we respectfully request speed in this process, it should be noted that, without their approval, our company will not be able to continue with the execution of the project.”
CHECK THE KING
Readers should know that this third request for an extension tacitly included the request for money; It does not mention it directly, but it says verbatim “(…) for the entity to review and approve the resources for the completion of the project and the inclusion of the new quantities of work.” New amounts of work translate into budget additions.
It is clear that words are carried by the wind and what is written is written. This is nothing less than the preconstitution of the test. They have already said that, without this, they do not commit to finishing the work, and it must be made very clear that although at the time we write this analysis there is no new request for extension or budget addition published, the deadlines have already expired; In fact, on Tuesday of Holy Week they expired and that is why, conveniently, it was leaked to the media and EL PILÓN, for the first time, made it public on its networks on March 26, that there was a new request and this time, although it is implicitly it does not say it, it is no longer about time but about budget. It should be noted that the third extension expired precisely that day.
Vallenata Music Cultural Center. Joaquín Ramírez.
THE BUDGET ADDITION REQUEST
Without curves: that has to be ready already. Either it is or the contractor who called the check has already breached the contract. If this addition is only an assumption, policies must be applied to the contractor who very prudently warned that if the request was not approved he would not be able to comply, and since it is clear that the extension has already expired and the construction is far from finished, which we are going to witness will be the consummation of accomplished facts.
That is going to come to light without remedy because for this addition to occur, within the terms of the law, you must have a Certificate of Budget Availability and a Certificate of Budget Registration (CDP and CRP) these documents must have previous dates upon the expiration of the last extension, that is, before March 26.
WHAT’S NEXT, WHAT CAN FOLLOW?
33 months after the start of a contract agreed to at 22, the golden rule of the government house begins to be fulfilled, but this time with a tinge of karma: it was in Valledupar. And here things are a little different. The contracts of the Government House of Cesar always break with national legal logic, so that what is the exception in the rest of the country is the rule here. The additions in both time and money call into question not only the contractor but also the one who hired him. We are witnessing a catastrophe that was announced ad nauseam.
We were in the middle of a pandemic. Many voices were raised to tell the governor that this work was inconvenient in every way: he did not want to listen to anyone. The lot could not have been chosen worse because it is surrounded by clinics, specialized diagnostic centers, medical centers and the Rosario Pumarejo Hospital; That is, a population in poor health with a partying neighbor in the neighborhood.
The Rosario Pumarejo hospital, our regional hospital, was about to close due to its worst financial crisis in history and our IDREEC Rehabilitation and Special Education Institute (once a national model) was already practically unviable, and the Nation in emergency of health.
And we also had the worst employment indicator, both formal and informal; so rethinking the investment was of the most basic synderesis. Everything indicated the inconvenience of that whim, but the point is there.
The contractors threaten that they will not be able to finish it and that is not what it is about. Her hand is wet and her entire arm is wet. That must be finished. She is in the heart of the city; It already cost us too much and it will continue to cost us, because that started at about $140,000 million, they are going to add 50% and it will reach about $210,000 million and then they are going to invent other contracts so that it ends up costing more than three times as much. what it cost when it was just an idea in the Monsalvo Gnecco Government House; as in the CDT Pesquero, as with the stadium, and data from other municipalities is expected.
OUTCOME
Governor Elvia Milena Sanjuán is in a situation that no career politician would want, but she seems to feel comfortable in such a circumstance because so far there is no sign of concern, and she should…
Luis Alberto Monsalvo is not just any neighbor’s son, he is nothing less than the ‘Golden Bambino’ of the government house and precisely in the same week in which the Supreme Court sentences him to almost 22 years in prison (We think of the strange coincidence of the 22 months of the extended contract and the years of the sentence), these contractors are demanding an increase of 41,000 million.
This is not done at risk, those are coldly thought-out plays and it is not known if it was due to strategy or clumsiness, but they make it coincide with three things: expiration of the third extension, conviction of the former governor and the beginning of Holy Week. Is Governor Elvia Milena Sanjuán aware of everything that these three coincidences imply?
If Luis Alberto Monsalvo, with everything it means to have that name, is condemned and imprisoned; Despite all the enormous political weight that comes with being the emblem of the clan, what awaits her, who not only is not part of the family, but was the last resort to confront two women with a profile like Claudia Margarita Zuleta and Katia Ospino?
We assume that it is likely that the governor has in mind to present her letter of resignation because it is very clear that after acting administratively; Unofficially, the control agencies, that is, the Prosecutor’s Office, the Comptroller’s Office and the Attorney General’s Office, will also act in relation to this contract. But that’s what we think while doing this analysis.
This is the most interesting week not only because all the deadlines have passed but because believing that others don’t think is the biggest mistake of those who think they think.
Carlos Andrés Añez and José Luis Bustos Reales