The governor of Antioquia has proposed the federalization of the Colombian government due to the central government’s inability to distribute resources for the rainy season, Colombian media reported.
Governor Luis Alfredo Ramos lashed out the central government, claiming that his department has not received any funding to repair houses or fix roads that were damaged in previous rainy season.
“When they manage resources in an office for 1,102 municipalities there are huge failures, delays, obstacles, red tape, and other things that don’t work,” said Ramos.
Radio station Caracol Radio reported that Ramos also pointed out the ineffectiveness of the government-run humanitarian organization Colombia Humanitaria, which is in charge of allocating flood funds.
“There are serious administrative problems with the management of Colombia Humanitaria, of the rainy season and everything that the centralism of the capital handles. There are many problems, everything is delayed, slow and barely functional,” Ramos maintained.
The governor proposed “the federalization of the country so that the departments and the regions manage the resources and not the centrality of Bogota.”
President Juan Manuel Santos has been critical of governors and mayors because of their inefficiency to adequately prepare Colombia for the new rainy season. He claimed that Colombia Humanitaria had approved and allocated resources but that the inefficiency of local governments is the problem.
The last rainy season that hit Colombia in 2010 and 2011 killed more than 300 Colombians and left more than two million people homeless.
The country has not yet recovered from the destruction left by its worst winter in recent history, but forecasters at the have warned that the upcoming season may be even more severe.