Proposal in Congress seeks to advance money from future periods

One of the issues that undoubtedly generates controversy in the country whenever it is mentioned is that of future terms, debt commitments that are acquired year after year to develop infrastructure works or social programs and that For experts, they are a guarantee of the nation’s fiscal responsibility and stability.

A few months ago this issue was in the news when the president’s intention became known Petro to change the items established for this issue, through the General Budget of the Nation for 2024, a situation that even generated alerts in risk agencies and international organizations, who pointed out that investor confidence was being put at risk in times of a strong slowdown.

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Although this is a controversial issue that has already been buried, at least in the controversy generated by the Government, Congress is promoting a project to review the way in which part of these resources are being used, arguing that they are currently exposed to risks of misappropriation of resources and corruption, affecting the works that depend on them.

Bicentennial Pact

The idea is led by the representative of the Green Party from Boyacá, Wilmer Castellanos, who this week called for a debate on political control due to the poor execution of the resources of the Bicentennial Pact, an agreement with which work is being done on the roads of five departments (Boyacá, Cundinamarca, Arauca, Casanare and Santander), who today, according to their complaints, are being affected by the lack of progress.

According to the legislator, this money is currently being invested in clearing landslides, widening roads and installing material, but there are still no roads or pavement four years after the pact was signed, with which it was said at the time that road connectivity and tourism would be strengthened in the departments that were part of the Liberation Campaign.

“We need to advance now, the future validity of the Bicentennial Pact “So that money is not lost or wasted any more, the limits for paved kilometers must be met; in addition, the Duitama-Sogamoso dual carriageway must become a reality,” said Castellanos.

The Minister of Transport, María Constanza García; the Minister of Commerce, Luis Carlos Reyes; the Minister of Finance, Ricardo Bonilla; and the director of the Planning Department, Alexander López; among others, were summoned to this debate, with the purpose of reviewing the physical, technical and financial execution.

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Castellanos recalled that among the main commitments of the Bicentennial Pact is the strengthening of road connectivity between the departments of the Liberating Campaign, which includes 8 priority road corridors worth $3.4 billion; in addition to strengthening the tourism competitiveness of 66 priority projects in 6 areas of the tourism sector plan for a value of $290,651 million.

After finding inconsistencies regarding the execution of the work, the representative mentioned that some of the problems that have been occurring are that the Secop does not show all the policies that insure the contract during its entire term, in addition to the fact that the lands present instability, mass removal phenomenon; water saturation and the Sogamoso variant had an initial 7.3 km and is now reduced to 2 km.

Road works

Courtesy of UMV

In light of this, he recalled that the development of historically important regions is at stake. of the country, which indicated that they cannot be left at the mercy of the corrupt and that because of this, the announced resources must also be taken care of, because at this time they are not being used in the correct manner.

Good support

The debate was supported by 17 members of the House of Representatives, who agreed on the need for the allocated resources to be invested more quickly, but also generating visible results that address the real needs of the community in the five departments.

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Likewise, he concluded that there are no resources such as petty cash for routine maintenance, that is, urgent investment is required in improvement and construction, also, evaluate and accept one of the three options: credit from the nation, rescheduling future terms and credit by private individuals and the inclusion of the Bicentennial Pact in the Colombia commitment strategy.