Delays reported in 18 school works in Santander

Delayed works are a problem in different regions and departments of Colombia, especially in Santander, where the firm GMP Ingenieros SAS, halved the school works, in addition, debts of more than 3.69 billion pesos to suppliers for work performed, services performed and rented goods.

Of the 18 works, only 15 contracts have been reassigned to other firms, of which 4 have already been reactivated. The Fund for Financing Educational Infrastructure, assured that these projects are at an advanced stage for delivery, some such as the José Antonio Galán Educational Institution in Piedecuesta, Santander, are in an overall progress of 97%, which means that complementary activities will soon begin.

According to the Ffie, 88 billion is the cost of the projects that the firm GMP left. They would have only been paid what was done from the works. In addition, he assured that the firm involved has no longer awarded any school projects in Santander.

But disagreements with the deliveries of these projects are constant in different departments and municipalities of the country, for example, in Cajicá, Cundinamarca, the representative Juan Sebastián Segovia visited the facilities of the San Gabriel School, at the request of the institution's educational community, where he evidenced that the Ffie delivered in 2019, this work is incomplete. The new infrastructure of the building is facing serious problems, among which are the lack of services such as water and electricity. Also, the restaurant could not be enabled due to lack of water.

Another complaint that the representative made to the Ministry of Education is that there is no drainage in the sector where the school is located, which, in winter times, such as the one currently experienced, is seriously affected by floods, which puts students and staff of the institution at risk.

The national government, through the Ministry of Education, announced that it has delivered 250 projects throughout Colombia, 3,451 new classrooms, 1,361 improved classrooms, 146 comprehensive laboratories, 109 libraries, 221 restaurants and school canteens, 126 technology classrooms, among other environments for learning.

Education Minister Maria Victoria Ángulo said the government's commitment is to deliver 540 new or expanded schools and 671 schools in rural areas. There would be 12,000 new classrooms of official educational institutions that plan to finish and present at the end of their term.

The Minister said: “The national Government is making progress on commitments related to the country's educational infrastructure and fulfills its promise to provide new and better opportunities of access and retention for thousands of children and young people in the country. We are happy, because we continue to fulfill our students throughout Colombia. Undoubtedly, these works contribute to the face-to-face return of the educational community, but also to improve the quality of education, which is the subject that we should focus on at this time. With decent, modern and safe facilities, we generate better learning conditions throughout the education community and that is reflected in better academic results.”

The last educational institution delivered by the national government was the José Cayetano Vásquez school, in Ciénaga, Boyacá. The project had an investment of 1,673 million pesos delivered by the ministry to the governorate of the department through the Fund for the Financing of Educational Infrastructure.

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