The mayoress of Santiago, Irací Hassler (PC)announced a series of measures to be taken in the capital city, after the Comptroller General of the Republic (CGR) objected to the purchase of the Sierra Bella Clinic by the corporation.
The community leader asserted that the procedure that regulates the purchase of real estate is determined by the appraisals. “The municipality contracted three expert appraisals, which have been questioned, and before that they are the ones who have to take responsibility and give explanations before the Justice,” she explained. For this reason, “we have decided to take legal action against the appraisers, regarding the observations made by the Comptroller,” she added.
You may also like:
In addition, the communist mayor reported that two officials from the Municipality of Santiago were asked to resign: the legal director and the secretary of community planning. “It seems fundamental to us that all the repsonsabildiades be assumed: and that means making the administrative summaries and the complaints to the appraisers,” Hassler commented.
Likewise, the mayoress of Santiago insisted that the purchase was not made. “Not a single peso from the municipality has been spent here,” she stressed. And she added: “It is important that we can have all the background information on the table (…). Therefore, as mayor, I instructed to abide by what the Comptroller dictated, and we sent a letter to the notary public to abstain from the purchase process.”
However, the municipal authority warned of the need to expand health coverage in the commune, given the considerable increase in the population that inhabits Santiago Centro. According to Irací Hassler, in 2003 approximately 230,000 people lived in the commune. By 2023, the figure is close to 500 thousand.
“This exponential growth did not go hand in hand with green areas, kindergartens, or health infrastructure, especially for residents who are treated at Cesfam Padre Orellana, and who urgently require a place to develop health services,” he claimed.
“We continue with the desire to have urgent alternatives for the health of the commune, the need to have health infrastructure for the community as soon as possible. The commune of Santiago has grown to more than double its population,” he commented. “In this search, we found a place that represented an opportunity for Santiago, a space that has all the possibilities to develop a health project for the commune.”
“We made the decision together with the council to be able to carry out an acquisition process for the former clinic (…). The municipal council had all the background information to make a conscious decision.” The election, Hassler asserted, had “10 votes in favor, not one against.”
Regarding the questions that arose after the publication of the report from opposition parliamentarians, Hassler responded that “there is no basis for that, but we regret the political opportunism that has been present at different times of our administration.”
“This attitude does not surprise us (…). It is evident that they do not care about people’s health,” added the authority.
