The Comptroller General of the Republic determined seven findings with alleged tax incidence for a value of $50,155,113,567 in a compliance audit carried out at the National Institute of Roads (Invías), over 42 contracts for more than $1 billion.
(Invías began work on the Guillermo Gaviria Echeverri tunnel tracks).
The finding with presumed tax incidence of greater amount (for $25,296 million), corresponds to the contract for the construction of the new Pumarejo Bridge, in Barranquilla. According to the Comptroller, This presumed loss of property is generated by deficiencies in the management to guarantee the permanent operation of the lighting and instrumentation systems of this structure, commissioned since December 2019.
“In relation to the works executed under Contract 642 of 2015, the audit team evidenced that Invías has not effectively exercised the function of adequate safeguarding of the assets derived from the constructed works, due to the continued theft and vandalism of the elements. of the bridge, without taking effective and timely steps to mitigate these non-conformities, since they were and are well known, from the very beginning of the construction of the works, the difficulties and conditions of insecurity in the sector where this bridge is located”added the control entity.
(Invías awarded viaduct works on the Bogotá – Villavicencio road).
In addition, the Comptroller added: “In the same way, quality deficiencies were evident in some elements of the delivered structures of the bridge, as a result of shortcomings in the construction process and in supervision.”
At the completion date of the Compliance Audit (November 2021), “the bridge was without lighting and without the operation of its instrumentation system, despite the large investments made for this purpose.”
This means that although there are still elements belonging to the bridge’s lighting and instrumentation systems, These systems are not working or fulfilling the expected utility, nor are they providing the specified services, thereby generating road and pedestrian safety problems. (in relation to the lack of lighting in the structure) and uncertainty about the structural behavior of the bridge (due to its lack of instrumentation, a requirement that comes from the designer’s recommendations).
Given this situation, the total value paid to the construction contractor for the lighting and instrumentation systems was raised as presumed property damage, since they were not in operation at the date of the Compliance Audit and, therefore, they were not providing the security and monitoring services provided for in the bridge designs and paid for in the development of the works contract.
“Thus, an alleged loss of assets is constituted for the value of the investments made in these items, whose value is $25,296,424,601 (administrative finding with alleged fiscal incidence and possible disciplinary connotation). Preliminary investigation for corrosion in bridge railings. In the audit carried out by the Delegate Comptroller for the Infrastructure Sector, an administrative finding was also determined with a presumed disciplinary incidence and the opening of a preliminary investigation, as premature corrosion was evident in the railings of the new bridge..
Now, the findings with presumed fiscal incidence in contracts of the San Francisco-Mocoa Bypass, the control entity showed that within the 42 contracts reviewed and evaluated in this Invías Compliance Audit, there are findings with presumed fiscal incidence for more than $22,769 millions. The resources earmarked for the execution of this contract (407 of 2010) were not fully invested, due to the expiration of budgetary reserves for the years 2011, 2012 and 2013 amounting to $62,725 million.
“For this reason, the scope established therein for the construction of Sectors 1, 4 and 5 was not met, leaving several planned works unfinished. The determined findings, in general, are supported by the deterioration of unfinished works, the poor quality of some works and the unjustified recognition of some unforeseen items, as well as the collapse of the slope, partially intervened, located between the abscissa of K9+ 920 to K10+010 on the Mocoa front, because the works designed for it were suspended without having been satisfactorily completed,” the comptroller said in the report.
Due to the foregoing, public assets were affected by the non-completion of the works planned at this critical point and necessary to guarantee its stability (the slope collapsed), which led to the determination that the resources invested in its (partial) execution , did not meet the intended purposes, generating presumed patrimonial damage to the State in the amount of $6,293 million.
“It was also established that Bridge No. 6, located between K5+761 and K5+828 on the San Francisco front, was left as an unfinished and non-functional work, which already shows deterioration in the built metal structure, therefore, before its current state and the technical construction shortcomings that prevented its timely completion, does not meet the purpose of investing the public resources allocated for its construction”, iindicated. The described situation generates an injury to equity for the value of the investment made for the construction of bridge six, in the amount of $5,138 million.
BRIEFCASE
