They seized the accounts of the Municipality of Chia for debt to the builder of a shopping center

The municipality of Chía, in the department of Cundinamarca, which has grown due to its proximity to Bogotá, has its bank accounts seized since March 11 by a decision of the Administrative Court of Cundinamarca, following a debt that it owes more than nine years ago to one of the builders of the Fontanar shopping center.

Municipal Mayor Luis Carlos Segura, spoke on the decision to clarify to citizens what has been happening with the process and the most recent total embargo decision that has put the investment fund of that municipality in check.

The problem arose in 2000 when the Municipal Council approved the Land Management Plan through Agreement 17, when a new use of land was determined in several buildings, including the well-known Fontanar Hacienda where the shopping center of the same name now operates.

At the same time, the POT established that this property originated surplus value, that is, that it should pay tribute to the municipal administration for the profits generated by the change in land use with a more profitable one, which translates into valorization.

Eight years later, the Council issued Agreement No. 8 of 2008 in which it was established that the value of capital gain for the beneficiary properties was 40%, according to Mayor Segura, motivated by a court order.

In 2010, the mayor of the time passed the collection account and issued decree No. 59 of beneficiary areas in which he established how much each of the properties to which the capital gain was due. Between 2012 and 2013, the owners of Hacienda Fontanar, Ganadería Hacienda El Palmar and Haiku Associated INC, paid a total of $15,960′917,840 to the municipality. The first paid more than 12 billion and the second paid the rest.

Just a year later, Haiku Associated demanded nullity and restoration of law because they considered that the collection was irregular and the Administrative Court of Cundinamarca, in the first instance, and the Council of State in the second instance agreed to him in 2019. Thus, the municipality of Chía had to return the value paid, adjusted by the CPI.

Mayor Segura, who took office in 2020, found that the municipality then and now, did not have the budgetary capacity to make the payment amounting to more than 30 billion pesos. About three months later, the pandemic began and the money had to be prioritized for the health system and emergency social programs.

Segura maintains that they still held negotiations to reach a payment agreement for what 11 meetings with creditors have done, but without achieving conciliation. The failure, according to the mayor, is due to the high sum and economic pretensions of the counterpart.

The mayor of Chía explained to the W Radio station that the municipality has a budget of approximately 280 billion pesos, of which more than 140,000 correspond to operating expenses and a provision of 10,000 for judicial claims.

What they propose from the administration is to pay with that money in annual installments and subsequently the interest on arrears, but the creditors have not accepted that possibility. According to Segura, canceling the total debt would mean sacrificing social programs and infrastructure works that are being advanced or needed for the municipality.

Based on the latest budget for 2021 approved by the Council of Chia, the debt amounts to half the investment in annual education and twice what the health sector costs.

On March 22, the Mayor's Office submitted a proposal for a payment agreement to give them time to structure a negotiation and for Haiku to file a request for suspension of the precautionary measure ordered by the Administrative Court of Cundinamarca, which seized 88 bank accounts of the municipality to appropriate the corresponding monies. to debt, according to the newspaper El Espectador.

The ruling was issued by Judge Nelly Yolanda Villamizar, who is recognized for having ordered the postponement of the 2021 national strike, bringing down Enrique Peñalosa's POT in Bogotá or authorizing the recategorization of the Van Der Hammen reserve in the capital.

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