Mayor of Maipú amid unfavorable Comptroller’s report: “It was a problem of paperwork”

SANTIAGO.-  “The City Hall building has been a headache for Maipú from beginning to end”, stated Mayor Alberto Undurraga (DC), after being informed that a report from the Comptroller’s Office detected an administrative irregularity in his leadership for keeping the building open for ten months, despite the fact that it did not  have the corresponding structural permits.

In the mayor’s opinion, the “right thing to do” was to continue operations at the structure – which was built and inaugurated during the previous administration of Roberto Sepúlveda (UDI)- since, at first, he had understood that it was only a “problem of paperwork” and it would have been expensive to transfer the employees to another location.  Nevertheless, Undurraga claimed that he immediately ordered that the building be vacated once he knew that there were structural flaws.

“(I kept it open) because it was the right thing to do, because when I  took over the municipality there were ten or twelve properties without municipal permits and I ordered that they be regularized, it was reasonable because it was a problem of paperwork (…) until they arrived in May of 2006 and told me ´you know what?  It isn’t just a problem of paperwork; it’s a problem of steel´.  Of course I closed it that same day”, Undurraga explained to Emol.