Noticias · Radio Viva Fenix

Contador público pide derogar acuerdo que aumenta tarifas de alumbrado público en Ipiales

March 16, 2026·30 min·2 clips

Accountant Gustavo Chalparizán explains why investing $25 billion in one year would crush Ipiales' economy.

1. A Viva radio broadcast from Ipiales interviews public accountant Gustavo Chalparizan about the conclusions of technical committees reviewing the municipal public lighting agreement Acuerdo 052. 2. Host Omar conducts the interview while Chalparizan calls in from Cali; the committee included engineers, accountants, economists, lawyers, a representative of the acting mayor Edgar Armando Rosero, and council representatives David Almeida and Lisandro Chamorro. 3. The episode's central question is whether Acuerdo 052 — passed in extraordinary sessions in November 2024 — should be fully revoked or modified, and what the committee's analysis found. 4. The committee's first conclusion is that UTAPI's claimed debt of COP $1.499 billion, potentially rising to $10.749 billion, could not be verified because UTAPI representatives at the final session on January 12 said they had no access to the financial information that had been requested in advance. 5. The committee requested ten years of UTAPI financial statements to audit the debt claims, but these were not provided, leaving the basis for the tariff increase unconfirmed. 6. The agreement proposes investing COP $25,848 million in a single year to modernize lighting, pay debts and comply with RETILAF standards — a figure the committee concluded was 'not reasonable' for a single-year plan. 7. Engineer Álvaro Bando presented five scenarios showing the same investment could be spread over three to five years, substantially reducing the per-year tariff impact on residents. 8. The committee found that a private operator is not strictly necessary: the municipality, using its existing COP $17 billion in installed assets, could finance the service through credit or revised public tariffs. 9. The mixed-economy company (sociedad de economía mixta) created by a parallel agreement to manage the tariff is legally uncertain: the Gobernación refused to approve it and has filed a tribunal challenge against it. 10. The June 30 deadline for creating the new company generates uncertainty because neither UTAPI nor the municipality has defined what happens if the company is not created — whether UTAPI will continue, liquidate, or sue for breach of contract. 11. The rural sector exclusion was eliminated from the new agreement, meaning rural communities — including indigenous communities — are now charged for public lighting regardless of whether they receive the service, without prior community consultation as required by constitutional principles. 12. UTAPI collected COP $400 million in January 2026 billings and a further February billing, but representatives could not specify which streets or zones the investment would cover, and no investment map is included in the technical study. 13. The commercial tariff bands in Acuerdo 052 were copied verbatim from Medellín's 2018 Acuerdo 032 — Chalparizan notes this error was first identified when Ipiales updated its tax statute in 2018 and corrected at the time, but the public lighting tariff was overlooked. 14. Those already-inappropriate Medellín rates were then increased by 100-400% in the new agreement, producing tariffs Chalparizan calls unconstitutional — notably a COP $96,000 commercial charge applied equally to businesses consuming anywhere from 1 to 500 kilowatts. 15. Sedenar (the regional electricity distributor) confirmed at the session that it has no formal agreement with the municipality, does not sell energy to UTAPI, and has been separately requesting that UTAPI create an organized customer service structure. 16. Chalparizan recommends full revocation (derogamiento) rather than modification, because modifying the agreement would itself require new technical studies that cannot be completed in eight days. 17. He proposes a conditional revocation: freeze billing immediately, allow the mayor and council two to three months to commission proper studies with verified financial data, community consultation and LED savings projections. 18. The tone is measured but insistent — Chalparizan repeatedly urges council members to act 'with sensitivity and respect' and warns that improper decisions could constitute legal violations affecting their political futures. 19. Local taxpayers, municipal council members and anyone following public finance controversies in small Colombian cities will find the most specific detail here. 20. Listeners seeking national or international news, or those without familiarity with Colombian municipal governance and public utility contracting, may find the local specificity hard to follow.

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