The delegate of the President of the Republic, Armando Cuéllar, walked into the Huila Chamber of Commerce. One request was the ‘Llorente vase’. There will be a second instance.
DIARY OF HUILA, NEIVA
CARLOS ANDRES PEREZ TRUJILLO
Just two months after Armando Cuéllar Arteaga was inaugurated as the President’s delegate in the Huila Chamber of Commerce, he already had the first judicial encounter with Ariel Rincón Machado, president of this entity.
The cute lawsuit is based on the most basic violation of the Constitution: the right to petition. According to Cuéllar Arteaga, the guardianship was raised before a judge, because they did not respond to a request regarding the financial statements of the Chamber of Commerce.
Oswaldo Calderón Trujillo and José Humberto Bocanegra, directors of the entity, also accompanied him in the writ of guardianship. For Calderón, the only way to formulate proposals to ‘change’ or ‘improve’ is knowing or having financial information at hand.
Diario del Huila in communication with the president of the CCH, Ariel Rincón Machado, affirmed that they will abide by the decision of the ruling, but not before presenting a challenge (appeal) of it. That is, the lawsuit continues.
The reasons for guardianship
It all started because on March 23 of this year, Messrs. Cuéllar, Calderón and Bocanegra, submitted a petition to the presidency of the Chamber of Commerce where they requested 15 points related to its operation.
This petition asked, among other things, “minutes of the Board of Directors authorizing the purchase of Shares in the Zona Franca Andina SAS, corresponding to the years 2009 to 2019 inclusive.”
In addition, a “copy of the contracts corresponding to the remodeling and modernization of the physical spaces (ANCLA 1, ANCLA2, ANCLA3, LOCAL 53 AND LOCAL 54) is requested, for a value in 2021 of $3,332,660,848 and in 2022 for a value of $4,278,409,803”.
The three petitioning members, of the nine that make up the Board of Directors, received a response on April 17, 2023, where the president of the Board refused to deliver the information and documents requested.
In the writ of guardianship, they state that “given their recent relationship with the Board of Directors of the Huila Chamber of Commerce, it is necessary to know, evaluate, analyze and understand the administrative and financial management of the entity, to fulfill its institutional mission, given that the statutes of the Chamber of Commerce of Huila, imposes on the members of the Board of Directors the duty to: “ensure the efficient administration of its resources, prioritizing the regional vision, business management and competitiveness”.
The three plaintiffs point out that “in order to fulfill the duty imposed on them by the statutes, they must evaluate the actions, investments, the formulation of projects, among others, with the purpose of defining the future and projection” of the entity.
In this sense, the Third Labor Court of the Circuit, indicated to the president of the Chamber that “he did not provide background, clear, precise and consistent with what was requested, fully developing all the issues raised and excluding evasive formulas, for which reason it was must protect the fundamental right of petition”.
It also indicated that the recklessness argued by the Chamber was not validated since “the hypothesis of recklessness requested as subsidiary” is not configured.
Chamber of Commerce response
The Board of Directors headed by Olga Rojas de Borrero (president of the Board of Directors); Ángela María Perdomo Tejada (Vice President of the Board of Directors); Ariel Rincón Machado (Executive President), stated yesterday in a statement that “this chamber entity is respectful of the ruling handed down in the first instance by the Third Labor Court of the Neiva Circuit and will strictly comply with it. However, it considers that the requirements of origin of this constitutional action were not taken into account, the non-existence of violation of the right or the ownership thereof, as well as the jurisprudential, legal and statutory context that governs the Chambers of Commerce, therefore that we will be filing the brief to challenge the decision with arguments that contain sufficient legal reasons to distort the considerations presented by the trial judge.”
In this sense, in 15 days a higher court will be defining in second instance this sensitive, but important ‘conflict’ that will determine the administrative course of the Chamber of Commerce of Huila.
Requests raised by managers
On March 23, three directors of the board of directors of the Huila Chamber of Commerce raised 15 requests that were not answered, these are:
1. Copy of the Incorporation Act of the Zona Franca Andina SAS Promotion Company.
2. Minutes of the Board of Directors authorizing the purchase of Shares in the Andina SAS Free Trade Zone, corresponding to the years 2009 to 2019 inclusive.
3. Minutes of the Board of Directors where it is authorized to lend money to ZFS SAS UO, under what conditions, interest rates and reason for said operation during the years 2012, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 .
4. We also request that you send us a copy of the credit and portfolio manual managed by the entity you represent, that is, the CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF HUILA, and the minutes or legal basis of said commercial and financial operations.
5. Copy of the financial statements of the Zona Franca Andina SAS from the year of its constitution until the validity of 2022.
6. Copy of the Guarantees and form of constitution that support the financial obligations and legal studies that guarantee the effectiveness or fulfillment of said obligations by natural or legal persons and the economic solvency that represent them
7. Copy of the contracts corresponding to the remodeling and modernization of the physical spaces (ANCLA 1, ANCLA2, ANCLA3, LOCAL 53 AND LOCAL 54), For a value in 2021 of $3,332,660,848 and in 2022 for a value of $4,278,409,803.
8. Copy of the Invitations and contracting modality that the CHAMBER made to the contractors so that they participate with economic proposals to execute said remodeling activities.
9. Copy of the previous studies prepared by the Chamber, of the quotes or budgets presented by the contractors interested in participating in the remodeling of the Physical spaces in 2021 and 2022.
10. Copy of the Investment Project of HUILA E that was presented to the Board of Directors so that said Investment could be authorized.
11. Copy of the Minutes of the Board of Directors where the investment of 2021 and the addition of 2022 and the type of resources to be used are approved.
12. Copy of the Investment Project for the Facade of HUILA E.
13. Copy of the Invitations to participate in the contract for the improvement of the Huila E.
14. Copy of the previous studies and the quotes or budgets presented by the contractors interested in participating in the remodeling of the facade of HUILA E.
15. Copy of the Contracting manual.
The House responds
In a statement, the Huila Chamber of Commerce indicated that it has always enabled the mechanisms for the delivery of information:
“This Chamber of Commerce specifies that it has generated enough virtual and personal spaces for access to the requested information, related to the South Colombian Free Trade Zone and Huila and Business Center, at the same time that it has invited them to use the institutional mechanisms, and even at the initiative of the administration has been brought to the Board of Directors on two occasions, without the plaintiffs having used them. This being the case, a large part of the information that they have requested in the petitions has been shared with them in the sessions of the Board of Directors, as stated in their minutes, a circumstance that was duly informed to the court of knowledge”.
“For this union entity, the Board of Directors is its highest administrative body, and deserves all the respect and contextualization necessary to make informed decisions, for this reason all documentation that has been requested by the members of the Board as a collegiate body and within of the same, has been delivered and socialized in opportunity. In fact, regarding the Zona Franca Surcolombiana, the project as a whole, the traceability of the participation of the Chamber in this company and the origin of the resources of its investments in this industrial park, which are more than 90% private resources, were exposed. at the meeting of the Board of Directors on April 26,” they indicate.
“As Administration and taking the respectful spokesperson of the other members of the Board of Directors, who are aware of the process and have endorsed the position of the Administration, we regret this situation, because it breaks the institutional cohesion and the harmonious work that we are in the duty of seek to guarantee the interests of merchants and the region”.