With a support of 11 votes out of 17 possible, the former Comptroller of Envigado, Pablo Andrés Garcés Vásquez, yesterday sealed his arrival at the Comptroller of Medellín, in the midst of an election that had been cooked on Sunday in the house of President Lucas Cañas and following a heated session that was full of questions.
Confirming what until Monday morning was an open secret, Garcés Vásquez arrived at the most important fiscal control body in Medellín following receiving the unanimous support of the government coalition in the Council, which, as it was known, held several meetings to reach a prior agreement, one of them at the house of Cañas.
Garces’ past
After heading the Comptroller of Envigado for two years, Garcés is identified as a close tab to the liberal political group of Envigado.
As it appears in his resume, in addition to his time at the Envigado and Medellín Comptrollerships (in the latter as assistant comptroller between 2017 and 2019), he was part of the Envigadian government as Secretary of Social Welfare and Community, during the administration of Raúl Cardona, the latter, removed from office following being prosecuted for alleged crimes of corruption.
However, beyond his time in that government, for several analysts and sources consulted, Garcés’ relationship with that political group has generated suspicions due to the closeness of several liberal politicians with the Mayor’s Office of Medellín.
Although this political group does not have its own body in the Medellin Council, from Congress senators such as Iván Darío Agudelo Zapata and representatives such as John Jairo Roldán Avendaño and Julián Peinado Ramírez have been close to Daniel Quintero’s mayor’s office.
While Agudelo Zapata has publicly supported the mayor on several occasions, Roldán and Peinado have also given an account of their support, for example, last year, when they filed before the Chamber one of the bills to convert Medellín into a Science district. , Technology and Innovation.
a heated session
In addition to the questions that the public contest has dragged on for several months (See Background), during the debate on Monday several criticisms of the members of the list also surfaced.
In the case of Garcés, the main question was raised by opposition councilor Simón Molina Gómez, from the Democratic Center caucus, who suggested that his time at the Medellín Comptroller’s Office between 2017 and 2019 might have caused him a disability.
As stated by the corporation, in light of Law 177 of 1994, which speaks regarding these disabilities, if one of the optioned had served as comptroller in the previous period, he might not be chosen as comptroller during this opportunity.
For his part, the opposition councilor Daniel Duque questioned Garcés regarding his closeness to the former mayors of Envigado, Raúl Cardona and Héctor Londoño, as well as the guarantees to exercise independent fiscal control.
On this point, Garcés admitted to having a friendship with them, but clarified that this would not conflict with his duties.
In addition, Duque made reference to a report published by the General Audit Office of the Republic last year, in which the Envigado Comptroller’s Office was accused of making excessive use of direct contracting models, signing 9 out of 10 contracts under that figure.
“According to the modality, 19 contractual acts were contracted directly, corresponding to 94% of the total contracts entered into, for a value of $270,273,262, for a minimum amount of seven contracts, equivalent to 6%, for an amount of $17,676 .128”, collected that surveillance body in a 140-page report, published on December 14, 2021.
Regarding his alleged inability, Garcés Vásquez defended himself by arguing that during his tenure at the Medellín Comptroller’s Office he served as assistant comptroller, which would be equivalent to a second-level position and would not disqualify him. Similarly, regarding the observations of the General Auditor of the Republic, he argued that these did not constitute fiscal or disciplinary findings, so he would not be disqualified either.
After the culmination of the interview, the Council finally held the vote, in which Garcés’s candidacy was supported by 11 corporations, including Luis Bernardo Vélez, who had recently distanced himself from the Quintero administration, but who in this case voted in sync with the government bloc.
For their part, councilors Daniel Duque, Simón Molina, Sebastián López, Dora Saldarriaga, Alfredo Ramos and Julio González, outside the government coalition, did not support any of the ternados.
After taking office in his new position, Garcés Vásquez will lead the comptroller’s office until December 2025. Only this year, that control body will have to monitor an approved budget of more than $6.2 billion.
