Pan American | The agreements that were signed in the minutes and that affirm that there was already money

Under the magnifying glass of the Comptroller's Office is Colombia's failed holding of the Pan American Games in the city of Barranquilla for 2027. The company Panam Sports removed the organization from that capital for breaches of contracts. And now this control entity asked the National Government to do everything possible to recover the losses and prevent the country from losing 2.2 million dollars.

This Friday, The W Radio published a record that shows the agreements that the Organizing Committee of the Barranquilla 2027 Pan American Games had reached on November 7, 2023, in this document the interested parties reached several agreements to move the event forward.

(You may be interested in: The route of non-compliance that cost us the venue of the 2027 Pan American Games)

One of the relevant points of this record are the statements of David Garzón, Secretary General of the Ministry of Sports, who pointed out that the National Government, through that portfolio, already had the 8 million dollars that should be transferred to Panam Sports.

However, he referred to the fact that there should be a temporary operator to whom this resource should be transferred with the mission of responding to Panama Sports. That company, precisely, had been warning about the organization's irregularities and non-compliance for more than two months, which ended up taking its headquarters from Barranquilla.

(Also: Who is responsible for more than 2 million dollars that were paid for the Pan American Games?)

In the same minutes, the Minister of Sports herself, Astrid Rodríguez, stated that that portfolio already had the 8 million dollars, “which must be turned in Decemberand proposes the Colombian Olympic Committee, as a temporary operator to be able to transfer the resources.”

At a press conference after the scandal that has her on the brink of a debate on a motion of censure, Rodríguez said that “in 2023 we will resume conversations to show our desire to look at how to continue with the headquarters and we are committed to paying the payment of 2022, but due to cash flow we couldn't do it, that's why we decided to do it in January (the 8 million dollars).

Financing would be 60 and 40 percent

In the same minutes of November 7, 2023, it was proposed that the financing of the Pan American Games be divided into 60 percent through the National Government and the remaining 40 percent was assumed by local governments.

Precisely, the now former governor of the Atlantic, Elsa Noguerastated that the venues had to be defined, in order to determine the real budget of the Games, as well as the logistics, to facilitate the possible movements of the delegations.

Meanwhile, the recently released mayor of Barranquilla, Jaime Pumarejosaid – according to the minutes revealed by the W – that he agreed that the financing would be 60 percent from the nation, and 40 percent from local governments.

In fact, in the same minutes, it was said that these co-financing percentages were approved unanimously, leaving the technical analysis of the sports pending.

(You may be interested in: Pan American Games: the economic impact that Colombia will lose by not doing them)

In other points of that minutes it was defined, also unanimously, that the resources would be managed through the Colombian Olympic Committee.

Finally, the minutes were signed by Astrid Rodríguez, as president of the Organizing Committee, and Ana Edurne Camacho, Secretary of the Organizing Committee.

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