October 2, 2024, 4:00 AM
October 2, 2024, 4:00 AM
The Santa Cruz mayor’s office is going through one of the worst moments in recent years. Yesterday, the offices of the former Secretariat of Tax Administration (SAT) were intervened after numerous complaints of computer manipulation and diversion of municipal revenues to currently unknown destinations became known in recent weeks.
In the first instance, Councilor Marcelo Vidaurre presented 9 complaints about changing the district of different properties to reduce the amount that taxpayers should pay for property tax on real estate. Likewise, he expressed suspicions about similar handling in the payment of taxes on the transfer of real estate and even in the payment of patents. What was Mayor Jhonny Fernandez’s response? A silence very similar to complicity.
Days later, councilors Manuel Saavedra and Lola Terrazas carried out investigations with similar results. SAT officials manipulated the system so that dishonest and corrupt taxpayers paid less taxes than they were entitled to.
Finally, councilor Rolando Pacheco gave the coup de grace. He presented evidence of a settlement of Bs 3,331,729 and ended up paying Bs. 64,629. Only two percent of the total. In short, a blatant theft from the citizens of Santa Cruz who suffer daily from the deficiencies in the municipal health system, endure unfinished works and live with limited and inefficient management.
Rolando Pacheco’s complaint was admitted by the Public Ministry and was supported by councilors from the Autonomous Community and the UCS. It was the least they could do because the people of Santa Cruz do not deserve that a criminal organization accumulates large fortunes with ill-gotten money.
We are facing a corruption scandal of great proportions, but this does not mean that there are reasons to believe that the investigations will completely clarify the fact, that the culprits will be brought to justice and that, above all, the millions stolen from the government will be recovered. public treasury. It is very likely that, as has happened on previous occasions, the investigations will founder amid legal technicalities, imposed reservations and the loss of evidence.
Before this fact It was known about the sale of positions, extortion of legally established businesses, falsification of operating licenses, blackmail with the missing environmental files, and a complex organization of processors who offer all kinds of “services” on properties surrounding the Quinta Municipal, very far away. margin of authorizations for illegal constructions, the loss of documents that guarantee ownership of dozens of hectares of public property or the dangerous and irreversible deterioration of the Ecological Cordon.
There is, unfortunately, a system of institutionalized corruption that dates back many years and that worsened during the administration of Jhonny Fernández. Thousands of public officials have enriched themselves at the expense of Santa Cruz people’s money, without any control or brakes.
Control systems fail and the ethics of public servants fail; But above all, the citizen conscience that has normalized corrupt practices fails. It cannot be that citizens go to municipal offices willing to pay bribes to evade taxes or other obligations. It can well be said that the mayor’s office, afflicted by the cancer of corruption that has metastasized throughout the organization, is a reflection of Santa Cruz society. and no, it cannot continue like this. Jhonny Fernández has the challenge of trying to stop the disaster and citizens, very soon, will have to think carefully to elect new authorities. More of the same is condemning the future of the city and its inhabitants.
