Bogotá’s mayor, Claudia López, sanctioned the new government’s Development Plan, entitled ‘A New Social And Environmental Contract for the 21st Century’, which will serve as guideline for the reactivation of the city following the Covid-19 pandemic.
During the event the Mayor also installed the Committee for Transparency, which will oversee the contracts in an effort to fight corruption during the next four years.
“The pandemic has faced us with the need to build a new Social Contract and today it becomes a reality. This is the plan’s largest bet: to take care of those who need us. What we were ready to achieve in the next four years we’ve been forced to accelerate in order to tend to all social and economic needs”,
said Mayor López.
The plan is comprised of 30 City Lead Achievements, 17 Strategic Programs, 57 General Programs, and 550 Sectorial Goals, and will cost a full investment of 109,2 trillion COP for the full period.
“Nearly half of all of this plan’s resources will be spent on achieving the first purpose we’ve set for the city: to build a new Social Contract that raises opportunities for social, political and economic inclusion. In order to be free, all citizens need to be able to rely on their own abilities, not the political clientele. This can only be managed when you build proper inclusion in these three aspects”, López said during her speech.
This new development plan focuses mainly on the social and economic reactivation of the city in the post-Covid 19 world, and to this end it will implement two large packages of programs, all around costing over 53 trillion COP.
The first, to be implemented during the following six months, will cost around 4.22 trillion COP, while the rest will be gradually invested during the following years.
Plus, around 500.000 direct jobs will be created thanks to the opening of infrastructure works which had been stopped during the quarantine, those that are still in the process of contracting, and new, projected ones.
See also: A social and environmental contract for the post COVID-19 era
Bogotá will have a new Committee for Transparency
In order to keep corruption at bay in the execution of the Plan’s priority projects, Bogotá will have henceforth a special Committee for Transparency, which will aim for more citizen participation and oversight. The Committee will set criteria for transparency, efficiency and pertinence, especially for projects whose contracts will be signed under the figure of Manifest Urgency. They will be ruled by four principles: Transparency, economy, responsibility and objectivity in selection.
“We are on the verge of entering contracts in order to be able to execute. Right now, we are allowed to assign contracts directly, but this carries a risk of not being seen as transparent. Thus, we have invited this Committee for Transparency, so that we can have consensus at al times. We are aware of their criteria and we will strive to keep them and to use them in every and all projects”, Mayor Claudia López.
The Committee will also counsel the Local Administration before and during the execution of these contracts and projects and see that they comply with all legal and judiciary principles, as well as raise awareness for taking preemptive measures in identifying and correcting possible failures.
The Committee will be formed by the following members: National General Attorney Fernando Carrillo; National Comptroller Carlos Felipe Córdoba; City Comptroller (p) María Anayme Barón; City Ombudswoman (p) Rosalba Cabrales; City Overseer, Guillermo Rivera, Mónica de Greiff, Mónica de Greiff, José Alejandro Cortés, Sylvia Escovar, María Margarita Zuleta and Juan Carlos Henao.
See also: Communicating and raising awareness during lockdown: a priority for Bogotá
The Plan’s Five Purposes
The local Development Plan proposes 5 main purposes, which will turn Bogotá into a global example for reconciliation, education, collective action, sustainable development, and social and productive inclusion.
Purpose 1: ‘To build a new social contract, with equal opportunities for social, productive and political inclusion’. It will have the largest investment, 51,4 trillion COP, representing 74 % of the four-year investment.
Purpose 2: ‘To change our living habits in order to reforest Bogotá, adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change’, will cost $9.6 trillion COP.
Purpose 3: ‘To inspire confidence and legitimacy in order to live without fear, and be country’s epicenter of citizen’s culture, peace and reconciliation’. $ 2.9 trillion COP.
Purpose 4: ‘To turn the Metropolitan Region of Bogotá into a model of sustainable, urban multi-modal mobility, with social inclusion’. $34.9 trillion COP.
Purpose 5: ‘To build the Metropolitan Region of Bogotá with an open, transparent government and a conscious citizenship’. $6.2 trillion COP
Bogotá, a city that cares for its people
With the Plan’s sanction, Bogotá will guarantee a minimum income for households in need, thus reducing inequality and building more opportunities for everyone.
The City’s Care System will be the first in Latin America to create a full set of services built exclusively to recognize, redistribute and reduce the burden of women, who have been sole the sole carers of their communities for decades.
