What has Congress said about spending on carpeting, parking, LED screens, and food?

Senior Congressional official José Chevasco, accompanied by other officials in charge of administration, offered to hold a press conference to address journalists’ complaints about excessive spending on carpets, LED screens and exclusive parking fees.

Sunday program PanoramaHe Congress Approximately S$315,000 was approved in January last year for the acquisition of 1600 meters carpet for various rooms legislative body.

A journalistic note showed documents approved parliament for the purchase of other goods at an inflated cost. For example, after placing on the market the same carpets with the same characteristics and the same footage, they will be priced in s/ 149 400less than half the price Congress was going to pay.

What is striking is that when looking for a company called “KOTLIN SERVICES SAC”, which won a contract in Parliament for the supply of carpets, its tax address was in the 41st block of Proceres de la Independencia Avenue in the city. Saint John Luriganchothe place where the chicken shop operates.

Another specific expense occurred in April of last year when the purchase of televisions for the entire Legislative Assembly began at a cost of SGD 138,350. On October 17, 2022, at the request of this Congress, they installed two LED screens giants in Room of Raul Porras Barrenechea. S$478,352 was spent on this acquisition.

Added to these costs is the rent of the land, which will be used as an exclusive parking lot for parliamentarians. According to the report, this place is only one block from Parliament and has security and a capacity of 200 cars, which you pay for. C/1,620,000.

The contract was signed last March to stop congressional cars from parking near the Legislative Assembly.

The Board of Directors of the Congress is not responsible for the administrative management

As the first point of the press conference, a senior representative of the Congress, Jose Chevascoexplained that the Chairman of the Legislative Assembly, Joseph Williamsand the other members of the Board of Directors are not involved in the administration of the Parliament.

He also reiterated that Williams asked the controller to audit the acquisition of carpets, LED screens, parking and catering.

“… It was decided that the General Directorate of the Administration of the Congress provides all the logistical and information resources necessary for the appointed audit commission. Thus, the president of the Congress announces that the administrative aspects of the Congress are checked,” he told the media.

Parking rental for administrative staff

The director general of the administration, Pablo Noriega, specified that the El Milagro car park, located on Abancay Avenue, was rented for use by congressional staff. He reiterated that this is not an exclusive parking lot for legislators.

It is currently detailed NoriegaIn total, 230 cars are parked in the parking lot: 54 from the Congress fleet and 176 from the administrative apparatus of the Parliament.

“This is an activity that has been carried out for several years and a garage has currently been rented, which, if we want to see the benefits it offers us, compared to the previous service, is less than 50%,” he stated. .

“If you do some math, in the garages near Congress, the time is S/4, but in the agreement we signed, the cost is S/1.1,” he added.

In this sense, Noriega also announced that a decision had been made to cancel the delivery of the plenary buffet after criticism for the excessive costs associated with its implementation.

“Currently, the cafeteria is proposed to provide a service with a varied menu, with different food themes, but this will be covered by the user and not by the Congress budget; even at parliamentary sessions,” he said.

The purchase of carpets is suspended due to non-compliance by the supplier

In turn, the head of Congress Logistics, victorian holesclarified that in Annual Procurement Plancorresponding to the annual period January-December 2022.

According to the official, it was the process of updating the carpets in the Main Chamber, the room of Raul Porras Barrenechea and neighboring rooms located on the first floor of the parliamentary complex.

In this regard, it is reported that the process is suspended, because the provider KOTLIN SERVICES could not meet the deadlines set in the contract.

When asked about the price of the contract, Hoyos replied: “Here we have data cables, voice communications, a conference system; cables of all kinds. To carpet where the seats are, the seats must be removed. So the service is quite specialized.”

LED screens are “imported, they are not domestic,” explains the head of the Sound Recording Zone.

Meanwhile, the head of the recording department of the Congress, Eduardo Llerena, spoke about the acquisition of two video wall-type screens for the room of Raul Porras Barrenechea. According to Panorama’s report, this acquisition cost S$478,352.

“What was installed in Raúl Porres Barrenechea’s room are not TVs for users, the process of acquiring these two screens took about two years. It started in 2021, and the contract was signed only in October 2022,” he commented.

Earlier, in a press release, Parliament explained that these characteristics were not present in the said system room, since the last screen that failed was replaced by a fabric screen (screen), which required a technological upgrade of the room. meetings of various commissions, conferences and other planned events.

lerena He added that the screens allow better visualization of video of face-to-face and virtual sessions, and also “allow the transfer of name tags and other messages.”

“Improved the quality of audio and video presentations. […]. These are imported screens, they are not domestic,” he stressed.

Congress ordered the reorganization of the General Administration Office.

Finally, Congress Mayor José Sevasco announced that the President of Parliament had ordered a reorganization of the General Administration, despite the fact that its current director has been in office for less than two months, due to journalists’ complaints about the costs. excessive in buying carpets, LED screens and exclusive parking.

“This provided an opportunity to review the various processes, and taking into account what was demonstrated through the press regarding these journalistic revelations, it was decided that the entire General Administration would enter into a process of reorganization in order to improve processes. , improving the quality of spending and improving the quality of human resources,” he said.

At the press conference Jose Chevasco was consulted RPP News about whether he will step aside because of these complaints. Due to this Senior congressional official He said that “complaints are being investigated” and that “it’s not about reacting and putting off a step in the face of this kind of journalistic development.”

“It is important to emphasize that there are lessons learned. The president himself [del Congreso] established the possibility of an investigation by the Office of Internal Control of the Comptroller General of the Republic. Appropriate measures will be taken after the investigation,” he said.