San José Muni Wasted
us$2 Million In Useless Land System
San José mayor, Johnny Araya and vice-mayor,
Maureen Clarke, are in hot water with
respect to the decision taken by the
municipalidad de San José to invest us$2
million dollars in an information system to
update the "catastro" (land map), which to
date has been useless.
The system was purchased in 2000 and
promised that it would be in operation in 24
months.
Araya, Clarke and several other municipal
officials will now face the Controlaría
General de la República (CGR) to answer
questions of the Comptroller General, which
has issued an injunction against some of
those assumed involved.
For the time being the CGR is not talking
publicly on the case, other than to release
details surrounding the purchase that was
made from a Mexican company, Estudios y
Proyectos de Ingeniería Urbana S.A de C.V
and Argeomática S.A de C.V., that were
responsible for the design, supply,
maintenance and operation of a system that
was to create a database of the 72.000
parcels of land in San José.
The companies were also to provide training
of and assistance to municipal workers.
The cost of the system was us$1.296.000
dollars, which increased to us$1.907.079,
when it was discovered that the system had
to handle an additional 33.000 more parcels
that were to have been mapped out.
Ten years later only partial advances have
been made. The major problem facing the
integration is the incompatibility of the
new system with the municipality's Unisys
computer system.
The catastro is required in the processing
of any municipal building permit or license.
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San José mayor, Johnny Araya, will have to answer questions of the muni's investment of us$2 million dollars in a land mapping system that is useless. |
