2024-08-21 18:28:26
Criticism of the Neiva Mayor’s Office: Israel Silva defends the Cooperatives. This was stated to Diario del Huila by Israel Silva, director of Asocooph. The leader of the solidarity sector stated that there is a lack of knowledge on the part of the Casagua Administration about how the surpluses are distributed in the solidarity economy.
Huila Daily, Economy
By: Gustavo Patiño
The director of the Association of Cooperatives of Huila – Asocooph, Israel Silva, assured Diario del Huila that the Mayor’s Office has made an erroneous reading of the nature of the organizations of the solidarity economy, specifically of the savings and credit cooperatives and the employee funds, equating them to companies in the financial sector, “that is where I want to enter to make a difference in the concept and the way in which the Mayor’s Office has interpreted and considered that the cooperatives and the employment funds do financial activity, but in reality it is not a financial activity properly.”
“Because financial activity is established in the Organic Statute of the Financial System for those entities that openly attract the public and also develop activities of placement of these resources and in Colombia, these financial entities established in the Statute are entities supervised by the Financial Superintendence, which are especially the banks, all the banks of a nature, both private and public, and two of a cooperative nature, which are Coopcentral and a public limited company, Bancoomeva,” said Silva.
Only with partners
“These financial institutions are supervised by the Financial Superintendence and obviously have established activities that are only permitted to them, for example, current accounts, debit cards, credit cards and the entire ACH network, the online transaction system, regulated by the Bank of the Republic, these entities can do activities with third parties, with all the account holders who earn. The savings cooperatives and employee funds are supervised by the Superintendence of the Solidarity Economy and we can only do fundraising and placement activities with associated people, and we cannot attract a third party that is not an associate.”
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Big difference
The director of Asocooph added that the big difference between the entities of the financial sector and the cooperative sector, in addition to the fact that they are supervised by the Financial Superintendence and the Superintendence of the Solidarity Economy respectively, is the way in which surplus resources are distributed or invested, “I think that there is no deep knowledge and the nature is unknown by the Municipal Administration, because the entities of the financial sector, whatever they may be, have profits and the profits are returned according to the percentage of ownership that the owners of the banks have, then an entity like any other, speaking that belongs to a single owner, as happens in banks, a bank X where 90% or 100% of the shares are owned by a Colombian businessman, then the profits that that bank has will be for the owner of the bank.”
“Then, in cooperatives and employee funds, the surpluses that are obtained from the economic activity of the organizations will be returned to benefit the associates, in social programs, so there is a lack of knowledge about the nature of organizations for social benefit in social programs,” he said.
Inaccurate information
Silva pointed out that the municipal administration was providing inaccurate information when it stated that in the capital of Antioquia, solidarity sector organizations paid an Industry and Commerce Tax of 11 per thousand. “We managed to refute the argument that in Medellín, industry and commerce were charged to solidarity economy organizations. There, we managed to obtain a tax exemption; cooperatives do not pay the industry and commerce tax. This is a policy that has been achieved and gained as a result of the recognition that Medellín and Antioquia have given to the cooperative and solidarity sector. Obviously, Medellín has one of the highest competitiveness indices in the country, along with Bogotá and Cali.”
He also pointed out that the accounts made by the Casagua administration are wrong when comparing the capital of Huila with cities that have much lower levels of competitiveness, such as Florencia or Mocoa, “they put us in the percentages of Industry and Commerce of cities such as Florencia, Mocoa, Tunja, Ibagué itself. Cities where the value of the Industry Commerce tax is really very high, but that also shows that we are comparing ourselves with cities that have much more backward conditions and here we really should not compare ourselves low, but rather we should compare ourselves a little with the big cities,” he said.
He punishes us
The director of Asocooph assured that the mayor’s office, instead of generating links between the public and cooperative sectors, seeks to affect organizations of the solidarity economy, “there is a wrong conception of this administration on how to generate taxes, how to generate income, to improve social action, we do not share the position of the mayor of Neiva because instead of stimulating, instead of favoring and generating strategic alliances with sectors that have really been making important contributions, what he is really going to do is punish them and we believe that is not a good policy.” In addition, Silva pointed out that the mayor’s office, with this draft agreement, is worrying more about collecting than designing strategies for the effective collection of taxes and, above all, in an adequate investment of these.
“What we have said is first to generate a tax collection policy for all citizens, which will surely make the portfolio very full. Second, to make efficient and effective use of the collected resources, because it is also true that in Neiva the resources have been squandered. The resources that should be at the service of social development have been used in a perverse way. And what has been generated is policies that have increased the staff of the Administrations. What has been done is to pay political favors to those who supported during the electoral campaigns. What has been done is to pay with onerous contracts to many of the contractors, the campaign contributors. And that really will not cover the resources that are collected and those that reach the municipality, whatever they may be,” he said.
We need to change the chip
The leader of the solidarity sector assured that it is important for the administration to change its mindset and start to manage resources in a more efficient way. “Knowing how to manage, really acting with less politicking, with more management in collecting taxes that are not currently available in the municipality. What we are also calling for is for the councilors of Neiva to really become observers. Actors of political control and obviously they can also really exercise that control by doing a follow-up. An evaluation of the role they play in relation to the municipal administration,” he assured. And he said that the solidarity sector wants to make a call for attention.
“Because we see that there is a desire to collect resources and impose taxes. But we also do not see an interest in generating all that social dynamic. We all know today the great difficulties that exist in terms of security. In terms of robberies, thefts, attacks, and we do not really see a political commitment from this administration to face these problems that we in Neiva have today.”
Leadership is lacking
He also stated that there is a lack of leadership on the part of the unions, “unfortunately today we do not have a Trade Council. Today this Trade Council that exists does not represent the interests of the unions of this city, we do not have a chamber body either. The Chamber of Commerce is immersed in a deep crisis as a result of the management it had and the interim nature it has. In reality today what we are doing is a bit demanding greater leadership, what we are demanding is greater presence. And what this does is that there is really a situation in favor of the problems of the city not being discussed. Not being socialized. And there really is no position in this city that demands and is facing this problem. Unfortunately we still see a Council and some councilors who are still very much tied to the position of the municipal administration,” he concluded.