The current mayor of Colina, surnamed Valenzuela, taking care of her predecessor’s back, is making efforts not to rescind the sale contract and for this, her journalists asked Channel 13 television to be interviewed to pressure the government in order to that this hospital was built on said unsuitable land
Some time ago we saw the need to report to the Comptroller General of the Republic the desire that the next hospital in the North Zone of the Metropolitan Region of Santiago be located in a rural area of the Colina commune. Its promoters were former minister Mañalich, today a candidate for senator, and former mayor Olavarría, today a presidential delegate in the province of Chacabuco. The Comptroller’s Office considered our claim pertinent and twice warned the competent authorities that they had to adhere to the legal framework, which they have not yet done.
We all agree that this hospital should be built, but its location must be close to the population that resides in the north of the Santiago metropolitan region, respecting, obviously, the applicable regulatory framework.
Former mayor Olavarría had offered the land free to his government, but the urban regulations for it do not admit a building of health facilities on a larger scale and, therefore, the first thing that these authorities had to consider was to establish with certainty if it was possible, according to law, to build the hospital on this rural land. If the authorities had sought professional advice, they would have concluded that this was not possible, as the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic concluded, as a result of our complaint.
With inexcusable negligence, authorities went ahead with the Colina project. The aforementioned former mayor, acting recklessly, decided that the Colina Social Development Corporation would compromise his patrimony and that of the municipality in the sale of the 5-hectare land that he offered to the government. Nothing less than US $ 4 million was offered to an individual to buy it and as the payment was agreed in installments, there are four municipal buildings that ensure the selling party that they will receive those millions, although the hospital there is unviable. What happened to the councilors who did not fulfill their oversight function? All of them are responsible for having authorized the purchase of this agricultural land at the price of urban land, obtaining the seller a significant capital gain.
The commercial strategy associated with the hospital in the North Zone included modifying the regulations of the Santiago Metropolitan Regulatory Plan (PRMS) to allow its construction and the Seremi Metropolitano de Vivienda y Urbanismo, Juan José Errázuriz, with his officials quickly carried out all the pertinent procedures, involving residents in online consultations and meetings, without realizing that the modification was not consistent with the Regional Development Strategy (ERD). This prevents the Regional Government from approving the municipal gift, in light of Article 16 letter a) of Law No. 19,175.
In a recent meeting in that regional instance, Governor Orrego informed the councilors present that the Ministry of Health ruled out the construction of the hospital in the rural area of Colina, since urbanizing it and considering other related tasks required an investment of US $ 60 million. Even if that cost were considerably lower, the lack of coherence with the ERD prevents the approval of the modification of the PRMS and consequently the construction of the hospital on that land.
At the same meeting, said Governor reported that until recently the Housing and Urban Planning Seremi continued to manage the modification of the PRMS in Colina, despite warnings from the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic, which on two occasions pointed out the illegality of this management. the one that would be objected in the process of taking of reason of the modification of the PRMS.
Therefore, if the law were to be applied, the modification of the PRMS should be kept in a dusty drawer, as one more of the innumerable mistakes made by that seremi during this management, which we have made clear on previous occasions, being the most brutal is its unbridled interest in enabling real estate business in areas of ecological preservation, which cannot be materialized due to the rule of articles 34 of the General Law of Urbanism and Construction (LGUC) and 8.3.1.1 of the PRMS.
But the current mayor of Colina, surnamed Valenzuela, taking care of her predecessor’s back, is making efforts not to rescind the sale contract and for this, her journalists asked Channel 13 television to be interviewed to pressure the government in order for this hospital to be built on said unsuitable land, which can be seen in the following link
In the pseudo-journalistic note, the mayor claims that the government promised the people that the hospital would be built in Colina and that all the necessary analyzes had been carried out, but that only shows the irresponsibility of those central-level authorities and the lack of preparation. technique of the professionals of the regional public sector who gave the go-ahead to the idea of Mañalich and Piñera. All of them are responsible for this mess and generate false expectations in people. .
Mayor Valenzuela should be trying to recover the US $ 4 million badly spent on the land, that should be her main concern at this time, she cannot ignore that effort; a very heavy inheritance from Olavarría. We remind her and the municipal council of Article 60 of Law No. 18,695:
“Notwithstanding the provisions of article 51, it will be considered that there is a notable abandonment of duties when the mayor or councilor inexcusably transgresses, in a manifest or repeated manner, the obligations imposed by the Constitution and the other norms that regulate municipal operation; as well as in those cases in which an action or omission, which is attributable to it, causes serious detriment to the heritage of the municipality and seriously affects the municipal activity aimed at satisfying the basic needs of the local community”.
We will see if the new Minister of Health, together with the President of the Republic, are willing to ignore the warnings of the Comptroller’s Office and whether the State spends so many additional millions of dollars on this illegal hospital project or its correct construction is ratified in the ideal land chosen in the commune of Conchalí.
Finally, demonstrating that that television channel did not do journalism and that, on the contrary, that note had the sole purpose of convincing the government that the hospital be built on the land bought by Olavarría, we made it clear that this columnist addressed his press department, offering the other version of events, without receiving a response.
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