Through a Twitter thread, President Gustavo Petro responded to the controversy unleashed by the millionaire purchase by the Presidency for the endowment of the homes of the president and vice president Francia Márquez, who they cost a total of 173,084,200 pesos.
(Sandwich boxes and televisions, among the sumptuous purchases of the Presidency).
In the messages, he assured that among the articles acquired by the Administrative Department of the Presidency, such as quilts, blankets, and sheets, their purpose is “that the people of the service had the same comforts as the guests in the Palacio de Nariño”.
In that same publication he added that they found “absolute discrimination against their food and their rooms”, and attached photographs showing how they found the curtains in Casa de Nariño.
Although the president made this situation public, there are no curtains on the list of reported purchases.
(Millionaires denounce cost overruns in purchases of the Presidency).
The president also shared photographs of how the rooms of the people who work attending the houses were left. “They have the same bedspreads and sheets from my daughter’s room,” he said.
Did you know that one of its purposes was to buy bedspreads, blankets and sheets so that the people in the service had the same comforts as the guests at the Palacio de Nariño?
What we found was absolute discrimination against their food and their rooms https://t.co/odYP0iOwvI
– Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) October 4, 2022
Then he stated, after criticism for the possible cost overruns of the purchases, that said situation did not arise.
Petro’s explanation about the 27 million TV
One of the most expensive items in the set of appliances purchased is an 85-inch Samsung television. The specific reference is this: QN85QN800B 8K NEO QLED MINI LED Flat Smart TV.
As reported on the Colombia Compra Eficiente portal, this cost 27,499,900 pesos. In this regard, the president said: “In the entire Palacio de Nariño there is only one maximum definition screen available: 8k, which is necessary for various information that the presidency receives. Its cost is exactly that of the market, as can be established by anyone who watches 85′ 8k screens on the internet.”
Finally, he compared these purchases with those of the two previous governments. “The cost of rehabilitating the guest houses that my government carried out is ten times lower than in 2014 and three times lower than in 2018. No goods purchased belong to the president, they are inventoried and are part of the public goods of the nation”.
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