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Without as much eagerness (as in the interview we had on September 11) and with a more conciliatory tone, Mayor Daniel Quintero spoke of his first year. Within the process that is underway in Congress for Medellín to become a district, it launched a proposal: that the declaration cover the entire Aburrá, that the option for the annexation of the municipalities be left open in the coming decades and then the mayor of the great metropolitan city.
He announced the sale of some asset (it would be the participation in UNE) and said that the proposal to modify the corporate purpose of EPM will return to the Council as soon as it has a prior study and approval from the creditors.
Will there be an adjustment in the development plan ($ 22.7 billion) due to the impact of the pandemic?
“Until now it is maintained. This year we have had a good fiscal performance despite the challenges. EPM started weak due to the fact that no exchange hedges had been made and it had an impact in the first quarter. Its austerity policy has allowed us to have a good closing, the projections are between $ 1.1 and $ 1.3 billion in profits. In the four-year period we have guaranteed resources to execute the plan. Eventually, and we leave it stipulated in the development plan, the sale of some of the assets that we previously reported is contemplated: UNE or Antofagasta ”.
When will that be decided?
“It depends a lot on the EPM board, on the financial analysis. When EPM decides to exit one of its assets, it is because it considers that it is not paying at what it should or that it should focus its investments on the domestic market. We have investments in the world when we still do not have 100% potable water in the city or in Antioquia. That the investments are where they generate greater economic but also social profitability ”.
Which one would you choose?
“The UNE thing is practically a fact. We have to refine our position: either we have control of the company or we give up the stake. Today it is an asset that generates low profit for EPM in a fairly competitive market where if we do not have control we cannot make the investments as they should be. Medellín has, among the main capitals, one of the worst rates of broadband quality. Schemes must be created that allow increasing competitiveness. Eventually, a negotiation with UNE is on the table to make investments and evaluate other alternatives. In principle, the exit is the first alternative ”.
He said EPM was going for bankruptcy but the company presented a very different picture. Asset growth was 10% between 2007 and 2019 …
“I did not say that in this administration …”.
No, the data is until 2019.
“We had $ 2,000 million dollars without exchange coverage, the Hidroituango crisis and some other businesses with complicated challenges. All that has been fixed and we are doing well ”.
But were you quick to say you were going bankrupt?
“No, we were going bad. EPM has undergone a change of direction in this administration that today supports it towards the 21st century ”.
But for bankruptcy I was not going.
“If we continued the way we were going, yes. You have to understand what Hidroituango meant. Only in the first semester I had to put $ 1 billion for cost overruns, more exchange coverage, more complex decisions in various latitudes. That was not the way ”.
At EPM, eight board members resigned, the general secretary and the financial vice president, is this a symptom of what?
“Of important changes that were necessary. That of the general secretary is a personal matter, but they are changes in the right direction ”.
He said that the proposal to change the corporate purpose would be filed in October, what happened?
“That is not my proposal, it is from the previous administration that picked up the board that resigned. As a result of that recommendation, which was voted on at the meeting, I present the request for extra powers so that after a study and consultation with rating agencies and bondholders, a change of the object could be made. We are going to change the order of the factors, it was annoying that it was through extra powers. First we are going to do studies, the meetings, and then it is presented ”.
What will happen to the continuity of the Hidroituango works?
“The contractors have commitments to finish the works but, if eventually for any reason it leaves, EPM has a continuity plan that prevents this from becoming delays.”
When will the decision be made with the consortium that ends the contract on December 31?
“Their continuity is guaranteed as long as they want to continue, because they have a commitment to finish the project. EPM has no interest in making changes, unless a contractor decides to leave ”.
Would that continuity plan, if necessary, alter the schedule to enter 2022?
“If you alter it, it doesn’t alter it for long.”
The update of the local administrative political division was pending, will you do it?
“It has to be in tune with the one in Congress in which Medellín is moving towards becoming a district.”
What implications would that conversion have?
“I agree, it will give Medellín more teeth to be a Software Valley. There is a paragraph that gives peace of mind to the administration regarding expenses because it gives them time. I am launching it as a proposal so that in this constitutional reform project the district is not only Medellín but all of Aburrá and that the inclusion of the municipalities occurs when they want it after 2030 or 2032, so that we have elections for the mayor of the metropolitan city. It has political challenges but the door remains open ”.
Was the idea of an early victory against the virus sold to the public?
“This is an unpredictable and unprecedented virus. The rulers of the world had to face and make decisions often based on intuition, in the midst of times when no one knew what the answer was. Medellín turned to technology to solve problems that paid off in the first stage to buy time. When the pandemic began, we had only three available ICU beds out of 330. With Medellín Me Cuida we reached each citizen, we informed them of their level of risk through intelligent tracking. We were able to gain time to the point that Medellín today is part of the third wave of infections. When the economy opens, the challenge is different, it is to have ICU beds and use the time saved. We have 859 active beds and 1,000 if necessary ”.
So what are the accounts of the 1,000 Plan?
“What the plan says is that Medellín is capable of having 1,000 ICU beds. That number is unimaginable for the times we lived in. If it becomes necessary, we can have them but we must appeal, instead of intensivists, to anesthesiologists or bring foreign doctors or from another city. That is not good because the lethality is increased. We have not had saturation of the system, one of the best in Latin America, and that has allowed us to serve everyone. December worries us because of the risk we have ”.
What steps would be taken?
“We are on a longer plateau than we expected. The luck of the plateau is that it does not put excessive pressure on the system, we are used to that level of difficulty. The serious thing is if there is growth, we are 100 ICU beds from having to start using anesthesiologists, we cannot let that happen in December. To what measures? To those that are necessary. We will be strict with gunpowder ”.
And what will 2021 be like until the vaccine arrives?
“Medellín and the cities with the third wave of infections would be the best candidates to receive the first vaccines because they are where there are more potential lives to save. It is difficult to know if an abrupt fall is coming or we are going to continue with the plateau because probably what is happening in the city is that the first and second outbreaks are coming together, given that the economy is open. The Ministry has informed us that at the beginning of the second quarter of 2021 we would have vaccines ”.
How much has the pandemic cost and what will be the indebtedness for 2021?
“Medellín has been judicious with its indebtedness. This year we only lent $ 120,000 million and we paid $ 381,000 million. Next year we expect to make loans for $ 343,000 million but pay $ 469,000 million. Today the city has a debt of $ 1.9 trillion and this year $ 236,000 million has been spent attending the pandemic. These numbers may rise because at the beginning of next year, when we already go down the plateau, is when the most important measures of economic reactivation arrive ”.
Medellín Me Cuida generated debate about the handling of data, what certainty do citizens have that their information will not be used for other purposes?
“This is a mayor’s office that works with honesty and transparency. Citizens trusted us, 3.5 million entrusted us with their data, location, health status to be able to help in a pandemic, to bring food and tell them what their risk was. Citizens can trust that the handling of this information is as decent and neat as possible ”.
But what ends will it have?
“We continue to use it, people continue to receive information about how many infected there are within 100 meters. When we fall off the plateau, it is again relevant to make epidemiological fences. It will be important to identify which people need the vaccine faster. When it is no longer useful in health matters, we will send a message so that they can determine if they want the information to be stored in our databases or to be eliminated ”.
How do you justify that in the midst of a recession the mayor’s office creates seven agencies that will cost $ 2,086 million a year?
“I am going to talk about the value that this modernization has meant. Strategic project management has had the mission of moving the 27 largest projects forward. He managed to finalize the 80 meter which means $ 2.4 billion for the Nation, it is a dependency that has paid thousands of times those $ 2.000 million. We made a reduction in the costs of advertising that pay a lot for this transformation. The city also won a management for the LGTBI population, a historical debt with them; an ethnic group, which is recognizing the value of about 200,000 people; a secretariat for digital innovation required by law; a subsecretariat of Animal Welfare that will articulate the dispersed programs; a special Good Start unit, in the bid to end chronic malnutrition; and a secretariat of Nonviolence that makes perfect sense here ”.
You asked to postpone the cadastral update last year. The term of the law has expired, when will it be done?
“Medellín is a poorer city than we think. We had an update that was going to increase the property tax for citizens by 100, 200, 500%. How about that happens and then the pandemic arrives? We are going to do that gradually, it cannot be in one fell swoop, to do it by communes, because people are not capable of paying so much money in times of crisis. We are doing a study, a project was presented according to the Council to guarantee that the increases can never be above certain percentages ”.
What guarantees will the revocation movements have?
“All. I am a democrat, I believe that a recall process is an opportunity to show the city the management that we have been doing. It allows us to confront ideas. On the other side there are many lies and here there is honesty and transparency ”.
How have your critics been unfair?
“They rarely see anything good to us. Medellín received the award for senior management of the National Government, has obtained the resources for the most important project in 25 years, has reduced the rates of violence. The accusations that have been made against us have been dropped for lack of arguments. We are doing it with love ”.
And with what have they been fair?
“Wait, I think you are always defending yourself against criticism. In better communicating some things ”.
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