At the end of February, the Mayor’s Office of Bogotá indicated that it was being the victim of a Fake News in which it was indicated that they had spent a billion pesos on advertising during the administration of Mayor Claudia López, for which reason an investigation could be initiated. investigation against the president.
To verify this, the administration showed the investment figures in the communication media of the Office of the Communications Council, in which it was indicated that the Mayor’s Office of Claudia López has invested close to 18 billion in this area, which means a 61% decrease compared to what the previous administration spent in 2019.
However, on March 6, the Foundation for Press Freedom (Flip) published a new report by Pauta Visible in which they not only deny the data provided by the Mayor’s Office, but also point out that until September 2022 the administration of Claudia López invested 81 billion pesos in advertising; and that ETB and Canal Capital were its main contractors.
From the Flip they described as “misleading” the information disclosed by the Mayor’s Office to deny that a billion pesos had been spent on advertising. The entity indicated that it was able to establish that between January 2020 and September 2022 the administration entered into 81 contracts for official advertising, in which it spent 81.5 billion pesos.
It may interest you: 500% cost overruns in the purchase of computer keyboards for district schools denounced a Bogotá councilor: “They are stealing the children’s money”
What the Visible Guideline report indicates is that in the data provided by the Bogotá Mayor’s Office, not all advertising spending by this administration was reported. For example, the figures for the pattern investment in social networks, which today is one of the most important areas for entities, have not been provided; in fact, only 20 of 46 entities have reported how much they have invested in this area.
Regarding advertising on social networks, Flip was able to establish that the Mayor’s Office has invested at least 3,700 million pesos, with the Department of Communications being the entity of the District that allocated the most money to advertising on networks, with 879 million pesos. in two years.
The companies that contracted the most with the District
According to the visible Pattern report revealed by the Foundation for Press Freedom, there are three contractors who kept a large part of the 81 billion that the Mayor invested in advertising:
The first is the telecommunications company ETB with which the District spent 38,692 million pesos, equivalent to 47% of the official advertising budget. In addition, the entity pointed out that the administration has not submitted the information on said contracts with ETB, arguing that there is “a supposed commercial reserve.”
In second place is Canal Capital, a medium that managed to enter into contracts for up to 5,825 million pesos, which represents 7.15% of the total money earmarked for official advertising by the Bogotá Mayor’s Office. While in third place are the 2,000 million pesos, equivalent to 2.50% of the total resources, which were allocated to advertising contracts with the District Institute of Recreation and Sports (Idrd).
“Claudia López’s Mayor’s Office has spared no expense in official advertising and has come close to the same amount of money used by previous governments, whom it criticized in the past. In addition, her commitment to an open government is still far from being fulfilled, at least in terms of making information available to the public about how much her communications strategy costs them, ”said Flip in its publication.
The report also detailed that the district entities that spent the most on official advertising were the General Secretariat and the Department of Communications, with 23,225 million pesos. Followed by the District Department of Mobility, which invested 14,290 million pesos in guidelines and, in third place, the District Department of Health, which spent 6,074 million pesos. with Infobae