It has been a year since the Acuerdos Case broke out at the national level. According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the amount under investigation reaches $89,961 million in foundation contracts by the Ministry of Housing and various regional governments of the country.
According to various political actors and authorities, another consequence of the case is the “stagnation” of the decentralization process, an idea that was part of the current government’s work plan.
One of the signs of the slow progress of the process is that, more than a year following its presentation, the “Stronger Regions” bill – popularly known, in the first instance, as the Regional Income Law – which was announced at the end of April 2023 by President Gabriel Boric, is still in its first process in the Chamber of Deputies, under particular discussion.
Another aspect is that the figure of the presidential delegate in the regions has been maintained, considering that a constitutional reform project had been presented in 2023 that replaces the figures of the regional and provincial presidential delegate with the figure of the regional and provincial head of the Interior Government, in addition to introducing important modifications to the current structure of said figures.
“The decentralization process is at a standstill. That is a reality and it is largely explained by what happened with the agreements case. Unfortunately, it fell into political clientelism, millions of resources were used to finance political actions and that generated a loss of prestige for the process and distrust,” said the vice president of the Chamber of Deputies, Eric Aedo (DC).
Along these lines, continuing with the issue of the Agreements Case, Aedo referred to the upcoming discussion of the budget for the year 2025. “The budget law will come with restrictions for regional governments. But the most serious thing is that there will be no transfer of powers. It is necessary to determine which are the mechanisms that allow greater autonomy to the regions while safeguarding the use of resources, for that we hope to meet with the governors and their technical teams.”
For her part, the deputy of District 21, Karen Medina (PDG), said that it is necessary for the regions that the decentralization process advances, since “it is the only way that more resources can reach all the territories, all the regions of our country. It must be strengthened, the oversight must work from the regional councilors, which is a large number that each region has, they are people who must oversee the good use of these resources. There must also be a channeling of the communal needs and, based on that, there must be the plans for the regional government to advance.”
The parliamentarian also suggested that, just as regional governments are seeking to be given greater powers, coordinated work must also be carried out with the municipalities.
“Today, the regional government is the regional wallet, but its work or its plan for progress must be worked on with all the municipalities, therefore with the mayors, and in accordance with this, communal plans must be drawn up that have a regional vision of joint growth. Here we return to the fact that all the work must be organized, it must be carried out with all the necessary actors, and there must be a regional growth program that covers all the communal needs,” added Medina.
“We will continue to focus on decentralization because we cannot go backwards, but obviously following everything that happened with the foundations, we must strengthen, monitor, sanction and punish all those scoundrels who abused this free rein that they saw in distributing regional funds,” said the parliamentarian of District 21.
Text: Concepcion Newspaper
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