A new chapter opens in the frustrated construction and start-up of the Modern Art Museum of Barranquilla (MAMB). This time the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation opened a disciplinary investigation to the former secretary general of the Ministry of Culture, Enzo Rafael Ariza Ayala, and five former directors of Findeter, “for alleged irregularities” in the execution of the work that is so much expected in the capital of the Atlantic by the cultural sector, and which should have been delivered in 2018 for the Central American and Caribbean Games that were held between July and August of that year.
According to a statement from the Public Ministry, the then technical vice presidents of Findeter, Alejandro Maya Martínez and Alejandro Callegas Aristizabal, the general secretaries, Helmuth Barros Peña and Rodolfo Enrique Zea Navarro (current Minister of Agriculture), and the manager of Infrastructure are being investigated. , José Andrés Torres Rodríguez, in addition to the Mincultura official already mentioned.
The control entity seeks to determine the existence of alleged disciplinary offenses in the execution of the Inter-administrative Contract 2828 of 2014, which was intended to “provide technical assistance services and administration of resources for the development of the cultural infrastructure at the national level in the municipalities and for projects made feasible by the Ministry of Culture ”, as well as in the development of Association Agreement 13 of 2015, to build the new MAMB headquarters.
The document says that the Attorney General’s Office ordered the taking of evidence in order to verify the occurrence of allegedly irregular conduct, to determine if they constitute disciplinary offenses, clarify the circumstances of time, manner and place in which they would have been committed, and the possible damage caused to the public administration.
Those investigated may request to be heard in a free version.
“Sadness and anguish.” For María Eugenia Castro, director of the MAMB, the delay in the works of the museum, until now a ‘white elephant’ located on Carrera 50 with the intersection of Via 40, causes her “frustration”.
“I have great frustration, great sadness, great anguish, great pain because I also have to move from the place where the MAMB is located (Carrera 56 with Calle 74) in December. Terpel, owner of the property, has supported us a lot and the date is postponed, but I can no longer ask for more time. We have been there for many years without paying a peso of rent, ”says Castro. He specifies that “it’s been three years asking” gabelas.
María Teresa Fernández, secretary of Culture of the Mayor’s Office of Barranquilla and former secretary of that area in the past Government of Eduardo Verano de la Rosa, explains that one of the obstacles to continuing with the construction and adaptation of the MAMB is because it has not been possible to the financial closing between the Parque Cultural del Caribe (legal officer) and Findeter. This “would allow us to move on to a second and final phase.” “As a District, what we have been doing is buying lots from the Cultural Park, which have already begun to pay the first money, so that somehow they can solve the pending issues and proceed to the financial closing with Findeter,” said the official.
EL HERALDO tried repeatedly to speak by phone with the executive director of the Parque Cultural del Caribe Corporation, Orlando Carvajal, but it was not possible. Several WhatsApp messages were also sent to him.
The construction of the MAMB started in 2015 with an investment for its first phase of 11,800 million pesos. The Nation contributed 10,000 and the Caribbean Cultural Park Corporation the rest.
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