On Friday, September 8, before the General Secretariat of the Council of Medellín, the Draft Agreement 145 of 2023 was filed, which intends to the Corporation to allow the extraordinary transfer of financial surpluses from the EPM to add them to the district for during 2023.
The idea of the draft agreement is to take $78,229 million from the surplus generated in 2022 (comes from the net income generated in the previous year). The document states that these resources will be transferred only once to be invested “exclusively to finance the projects of the Medellín Future Development Plan.”
The idea of the Mayor’s Office is to distribute this amount to $38,000 million for Sapiencia, $4,699 million for Colegio Mayor, $12,416 million for Pascual Bravo and $23,112 million for ITM.
In the Project document it can be seen that with said money these institutions will seek to invest it in expanding the access and permanence of the youth of the city in higher education, improving the transition from secondary education to higher education, strengthening higher education and its research capacity and more. to maintain new infrastructure, such as the construction of the Tech Park in Pascual Bravo.
The Office of the Mayor of Quintero justified the request considering that it was calculated that the district will receive almost $2 billion ($1.1 billion of ordinary surpluses and $900 billion of additional surpluses) corresponding to these financial surpluses from the EPM, which is planned. that they will reach $3.6 billion in net results obtained by the public company.
“However, the net results obtained by the EPM during 2022 amounted to %$3,035,955,916, this is $600,407,719 million less than the estimate at the time it was prepared in the District Financial Plan,” the document justifying the reduction as a consequence of investments. produced by Une EPM Telecomunicaciones.
“Under the new circumstances, the ordinary surpluses are estimated at $910,786,775,000 and the additional surpluses at $758,988,979,167, where the total capacity of the General Budget of the District is reduced by $330,000,000,000,” reads another paragraph.
The Project also appears that as a result of the Council’s refusal to allow the extraordinary transfer of financial surpluses, the Council insists that the academic and research activities carried out permanently will not be put in jeopardy.
In another part of the document it is shown that the proposed adjustment of the surplus transferred to the district EPM will not affect the company’s program or compromise its economic stability.
“This is a new gesture and demonstration that EPM continues its social commitment to our city” can be seen at the end of the Project signed by Quintero and the Secretary of the Treasury Luis Fernando Gómez.
The mayor’s request drew attention, because it left a doubt in the air if in the remaining four years of his term, he will fulfill his promises regarding higher education in the city.
On the other hand, it is also unrelated to the fact that part of the public contracting of district contractors is done through these institutions. Therefore, let’s hope that these resources are invested in what is being built in the Project and not added to the list of contractors during the election.
