Don’t you like other people’s ‘cows’? Petro forgot when she became a ‘cow’ for projects in Bogotá

2024-03-27 02:05:55

Recently, President Gustavo Petro criticized the ‘cow’ led in Antioquia to raise funds and finish the works on the 4G roads. The controversy has not been long in coming and analysis and debates have been unleashed on its scope. The revelation of a decree signed by Petro in 2015, when he was the mayor of Bogotá, has just been added to the core.

The document authorized the collection of ‘voluntary’ contributions by citizens to finance city projects.

The decree baptized “By which the mechanism of voluntary contributions is implemented for the year 2016”, gave instructions to the Ministry of Finance to implement the voluntary contribution of “an additional 10% of the value of the unified property tax, of the industry tax and commerce, notices and boards and the tax on motor vehicles that results from the taxpayer in the taxable year 2016.”

The initiative, which appealed to the consideration of citizens, similar to the current exercise in Antioquia, initially sought to raise funds for three city projects: strengthening the Bogotá Fire Department, project: “A tree of life for Bogotá” and “Bank “provision of elements for the maternity area in the hospitals of the public network of the Capital District.”

For Petro at that time it was important that taxpayers had participation in the initiatives that meant improving conditions for the inhabitants of the capital. “That Bogotá, DC, to advance in the construction of a fair and equitable society, requires citizen participation in solidarity, as a manifestation of the collective commitment in compliance with the Social Pact against poverty to guarantee the provision of the minimum vital needs to the most vulnerable population. ”says the decree.

Although in his position as District leader he defended the voluntary contribution mechanism, today, Petro, as president of the country, has been the main opponent of the initiative in Antioquia.

In fact, on his social network act to raise money from the public in a massive and habitual manner, without having the prior authorization of the competent authority, will incur a prison sentence of 120 to 240 months, and a fine of fifty thousand minimum wages. To refer to the alleged illegality of citizen activity in the Antioquia region.

For his part, the Governor has repeatedly said that he will not suspend the ‘cow’, rather he stated that the most viable thing is for the National Government to comply with the commitments previously acquired instead of imposing a new tax burden on citizens.

He also asked not to stigmatize the contributors, given the rumors that the Gulf Clan had transferred money.

“There are nearly 5,000 donors, men and women, whom we ask not to stigmatize. They have voluntarily appeared at a Bancolombia agreement account, which has the possibility of strictly verifying the origin of these resources, who deposits them,” said the governor.

Now, although in both cases the will of the citizens is advocated, the mechanism for collecting contributions is not the same. Petro’s ‘cow’ was made through a decree with a fixed value in the payment of taxes by taxpayers -voluntary-. That is, when paying their taxes, citizens could choose whether to pay an additional 10% to finance the projects or not, something that has been done on several occasions in the city.

For example, in 2020, the then mayor Claudia López invited Bogota residents to make a voluntary payment of 10% of the property tax, resources that the Administration would allocate, according to the proposal, to improve the security of the city, particularly to create a command of 1,000 police officers to monitor the corridor of the TransMilenio system and the Sitp.

In Antioquia, however, it is done with direct deposit to a bank account for the desired value starting from one million pesos. The Government explained that to provide guarantees it was decided to structure the collection through an agreement with Bancolombia, in which anyone who donates must do so through a transaction with traceability.

The departmental government explained that they have all the filters to avoid suspicious contributions and clarified that if there is an unclear movement, the donations are immediately refunded to the contributor.

“The bank verifies the traceability of all transactions with a permanent audit, crossing with the citizens’ ID, platform, bank and voluntary contribution made, which will be audited again, before being incorporated into the budget of Antioquia,” explained the secretary. of the Treasury of Antioquia, Eugenio Prieto.