In the twinkling of an eye, and after months of fierce defense, Iraqi Hassler (PC), mayoress of Santiago, had no choice but to reverse the purchase of the former Sierra Bella clinic -which she protected for three months- after the unfavorable report issued by the Comptroller General of the Republic (CGR) in which accused a “unjustified price” in the business and made sure that they did not “He protected the correct use of public resources.”
The report from the supervisory body turned into a snowball that is far from over and that up to now has already left two injured along the way: the mayor asked him to resign Jean Pierre Chiffellelegal director, already Luis Mayorga, head of the Communal Secretariat of Planning (Secplan) of Santiago. “If the Comptroller considers that there are additional actions that could have been taken by the municipality, that requires that this responsibility be assumed administratively,” she said this Friday at a press point in the municipality where she was accompanied by neighbors, councilors of their sector and deputies from their party.
Of course, those pointed with the finger by the mayor after the controversial and failed process are not, by the way, the only ones.
In fact, Mayor Hassler herself is seriously pointed out after the processeven when she has been in charge of transferring public responsibility to both the now former municipal officials and the three contracted appraisers.
And it is that throughout the purchase attempt -since January, when it was learned of it, to date- the mayor defended tooth and nail the steps that were being taken to acquire the premises. The need for a health center, in fact, was never much questioned, as was the acquisition process.
In more than six meetings of the municipal council, the highest authority of Santiago was questioned by some of its members and in each and every one of them he defended his actions and that of the municipality, disregarding the criticisms that even outside doors at that point were already being made by him. the high price they were willing to pay. She always said that she had provided all the background information that was requested and even when the future of her project became more complex, she hoped to deliver it to the population “a property and services that are urgently required”.
“I am very happy and as a team we are very happy to make this acquisition of a health property that is tremendously relevant for our commune available to the municipal council,” he said, for example, on January 18, noting that his commune would have the first municipal health clinic in the country and that the project was very relevant to continue advancing with the infrastructure of the commune. “It has been a very articulated work to be able to generate a responsible, serious proposal and that it can really generate a profound change in primary health care in Santiago”, he pointed out earnestly.
What’s more, despite the fact that on February 2 the CGR ordered to stop the purchase of the property until it was determined whether or not there was an overprice, the mayoress herself refused to give up and towards the end of the month, in another municipal council, insisted that They went to “continue working in Santiago with a lot of commitment and conviction that we have a great opportunitythat the majority of the council also agreed (that plenary session had approved the purchase with 10 votes in favor and one abstention) to be able to provide our commune with a better public health infrastructure and we will always do it with transparency and probity ”.
And although various actors intervened in the failed process, there were three officials who were key: the resigned Mayorga and Chifelle, as well as the director of Health, Beatriz Chamorro.
Chifelle, who in the past had worked as a lawyer for the Chairman of the Communist Party, Guillermo Teillierand the mayor of Recoleta, Daniel Jaduewas a key negotiator for the project and defended it on more than one occasion.
At the council on January 18 and after the councilor Santiago Mekis (RN) asked for the maximum possible clarity after telling them that they had received the information that the ex-clinic was published in the Real Estate Portal “at a much lower price”, the PC militant and then legal director took the floor and explained that the “fair price ”was the result of the appraisals carried out and that the municipality commissioned said studies to independent professionals -today also questioned by Hassler- and based on that they established the values. “These were public, they were known to you a week ago and it is not an appreciation of the seller or of us as buyers, but rather the result of a technical study”, he added.
The professional had not only been part of the negotiating team for the sale, but also validated the deed and was involved in the appraisals. He was, in fact, one of the three recipients of the email where the legal representative of the San Valentino Real Estate communicated that it accepted the monetary offer for the purchase. He was also the one who had been involved in the failed purchase of Carmen 35, a business that did not come to fruition and which gave way to Sierra Bella.
But Chifelle was not alone in the negotiation process. There were other relevant people on that road. One of them is Luis Mayorga, now former head of the Secplan and who, it is said, Hassler also asked for his resignation. He, politically independent although linked to the Concertación in the past, is a geographer and was a municipal administrator in Conchalí, Paine, Huechuraba, Cerro Navia and Buin.
In addition, Beatriz Chamorro is another of those pointed out by his active role in the search for a property that would meet the needs of the failed project. According to those familiar with the process, the first steps taken by the professional led Chifelle to begin compiling the necessary information to formalize an offer. And that resulted in the Secplan headed by Mayorga requesting the corresponding appraisals, conclusions that were later presented to the mayoress.
And it is that although Hassler did not ask her to resign and she remains in office, the truth is that Chamorro was another of the strongest defenders of the acquisition, not only indoors. In fact, in conversation with La Tercera on February 24, she said that at first they did not understand why the real estate company had bought the former clinic for less than $3 billion and the appraisers hired by the municipality indicated that it was worth more than $8 billion, but that upon reviewing the facilities and comparing them with those of other precincts they came to the conviction that it was “a fair price”.
“Obviously, that difference in price caught our attention (…), but Sierra Bella allowed us to be operating faster. In addition, when they explain that this sale was due to lack of liquidity, since due to the pandemic they were in less demand, it is understood. And if they decide to sell it at that price, that’s what you assume. When you see the clinic and have as a reference that building a Cesfam for 30,000 registered people costs between 7,500 and 8,500 million pesos, plus the cost of the land, and you also know that construction could take between three and five years, you assume the value. From a technical point of view, one assumes, because the authorization that had to be done in Sierra Bella was much less”he said on that occasion, where he hoped that “I hope that everyone sees that they acted in accordance with the right of efficiency, opportunity and that the process was in accordance with all the legal regulations that are required (…) there is nothing to make us think we did it wrong.”
Likewise, the name of a lawyer from the Municipality of Huechuraba appeared in the purchase contract –Paul Casanueva-, who was identified as a representative of San Valentino, which caught the attention of some councilors, even more so when, after a modification of the deeds, he appeared representing both the real estate company and the municipality. At that time and according to La Tercera, some expert lawyers in the matter assured that it was strange that the municipality gave power to the lawyer representing the other party.