Around noon, President Abelardo De La Espriella informed the country that he had just accepted the resignation of Jaime Andrés Uribe, manager of the so-called Miracle Fund, in charge of the reconstruction of the municipalities affected by the earthquake of last August 10: “I have just accepted the resignation of the director of the Miracle Fund, as I requested, because it was the right thing to do. And in this government we do the right thing, even if difficult decisions have to be made. When mistakes are made, we do not hide them: we recognize them and correct them immediately. I am not infallible, but I have the character, determination and control mechanisms necessary to correct what needs to be corrected”
Uribe’s departure was known hours after the salary that he and his staff were going to receive in an entity that until It is now starting and whose amounts exceed even those of the cabinet ministers. The Investigative Unit of EL TIEMPO located Uribe, who agreed to explain who established those salaries and why he stepped aside.
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‘Preserve institutionality’
Jaime Uribe, former manager of the Miracle Fund. Photo:MININTERIOR
“It was a decision that I made taking into account the context and the need to preserve the institutionality. I prefer not to go into details about internal conversations, but I have always acted responsibly and thinking about the interest of the entity, the president and the country”Uribe assured EL TIEMPO.
When asked why, by last November 11, only 7.4 billion pesos of the 624 billion pesos allocated to the Miracle Fund had been executed, he responded: “We were doing it, we have to have everything very well structured, articulated with the mayors, the Ministry of Housing, looking at the prioritizations, the legal requirements for the distribution of aid with the trust, etc., but of course, this was non-stop.”
And when asked specifically what contracts were being structured, he responded: “Housing, commerce, demolitions, conversations with the Ministry of Health, education, culture, in short, a big battery.”
He also stated that it was a newly created or established entity: “We created a fund from scratch that was agile to care for such an impact, and we did everything in record time, in the best way.”
Finally, he explained where the salary table that ended up leading to his departure had come from: “When we were talking with the trustee and the Ministry of Finance we took into account some existing funds and their structure, the most similar in its functions was the adaptation fund, based on those salaries and with a significant reduction we built them, it should also be noted that the known values are integral.”
And he added: “I was appointed by the President on August 12, we worked tirelessly from the first days, and I was finally hired on October 9. I also want to say that I did not ask for a single ticket, I never requested a vehicle, a single hotel night, transportation, or breakfast, absolutely nothing during the time I was working for the Miracle Fund.”
When asked what he attributed the delays to and what obstacles he had identified to speeding up the Fund’s work, he said: “I don’t think there have been delays, if you compare what we did from scratch and compare it with some experiences from the past, you will realize that it was done in record time, we delivered aid and housing quite quickly, but one understands the need of the people, it is also known that the procedures in the State are slow.”
And he concluded by assuring that he supports the President and his entire work team in the task of governing and rebuilding the country: “It’s not just the earthquake but the government that just left that left the country in ruin.”
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