Facade of the Casa de Nariño, in Bogotá | César Carrión – Presidency of the Republic of Colombia (César Carrión – Presidency of the Republic of Colombia/)
Carlos Florez, ex-edil of Usaquén 2016-2019 and -apparently- a member of the Democratic Center, is denouncing a contract from the Administrative Department of the Presidency of the Republic, DAPRE, for more than 2,400 million pesos to maintain the façade of the Narino Palace.
In an interview with W Radio, the lawyer also pointed out that he finds it worrying that this type of spending is carried out, especially with the national and international panorama of the economy.
“In effect, we are very concerned that the government of the President of the Republic is trying to hire 2,444 million pesos to clean the façade of the Casa de Nariño in a year where President Gustavo Petro himself has said that it is a recessive year. We understand that, of course, this must be a Colombian patrimony and an architectural work (…); However, paying that amount for only washing the facade and receiving aesthetic works seems to us to be an exaggerated amount, ”he said on that radio station.
In addition, Flórez pointed out that the money from the state coffers should be better invested in other issues that are important to the country, such as the eradication of hunger in the country’s children.
“(…) it is not that we think that the work should not be carried out. However, what we have said is that it is a year where we are in recession, where the president In fact, we want to spend only on the urgent, because if this expense is important, it is definitely not urgent, expenses such as food are more urgent of children, where he and ICBF (Colombian Institute for Family Welfare) defined the budget for the 3 daily meals of a child would be 4,600 pesos, that is, each meal around 1,500 pesos for each child, then, well, it seems to us that That is a priority and not just cleaning the façade of the Casa de Nariño”, the litigant highlighted to W Radio.
Finally, the lawyer called on President Gustavo Petro and the director of the Administrative Department of the Presidency of the Republic (DAPRE), who is Mauricio Lizcano, to reconsider this type of contract.
“What we have reviewed in the previous studies of the contract is that they are mainly the washing of the façade of all those of the entire building of the Casa de Nariño, the painting of the windows and the wooden doors and the cleaning of the windows ”, he finally pointed out.
For its part, DAPRE points out that the maintenance of the Casa de Nariño should have been carried out 9 years ago and supports its importance in a study of the state of this infrastructure.
“(…) there are damages to the walls of facades and external decorative elements, some caused by breaking finishing and/or decorative elements and others by factors of pollution and deterioration of the environment, conductors of particles of biological materials, soot and earth, which are deposited on the surfaces of the stone walls and permeate them over time, are introduced into the covering materials, causing effects such as stains, concretions of foreign materials, biological attack, growth of lichens and minor plants , which if preventive actions, corrections and maintenance are not carried out, can increase over time and be the cause of greater deterioration such as weathering, efflorescence, cracking and / or the appearance of cracks in construction materials ”, they point out from the Administrative Department of the Presidency of the Republic (DAPRE).
Finally, from the national government they emphasize that the maintenance of the Casa de Nariño in Bogotá will take approximately six months.