As the province plunges into insecurity and economic deterioration, Kicillof and Secco inaugurated an ostentatious six-story, 4,000 square meter municipal palace in Ensenada
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In a new display of waste of public resources, the governor of theProvince of Buenos Aires, Axel Kicillof, together with the mayor ofEnsenada, Mario Secco, led the inauguration of an ostentatious municipal palace under the excuse of the 225th anniversaryof the city. As the province plunges into insecurity and economic stagnation, the Kirchner leadership — accompanied by Deputy Governor Verónica Magario and mayors Jorge Ferraresi, Fabián Cagliardi and Gustavo Cocconi — chose to celebrate with a light show and the presentation of the artist Peteco Carabajal, ignoring the reality of a population of just 65,000 inhabitants that must now bear the maintenance of a pharaonic structure.
The so-called “Megapalacio”, located at the intersection of PresidentePerón and La Merced, has an area of 4,000 square meters distributed over six floors. Privileged offices such as the Intendency, the Private Secretariat, the Press, Government, Public Works and the Misdemeanor Court will operate in this modern building, reflecting an oversized state structure that seems designed for the comfort of civil servants rather than for
citizen service. Inauguration of the municipality of Ensenada
The waste figures: The cost of
this work is a direct affront to the taxpayer's pocket. According to official data and market projections, total investment at current prices amounts to 3,187 million pesos, representing more than 2 million dollars.
The breakdown of the numbers reveals a questionable management of public funds: The Land: In 2020, in the midst of economic paralysis due to the pandemic, the municipality purchased the lot from the Chamber of Commerce for 21 million pesos.
The councilor of La Libertad Avanza, Sergio Pesado, warned that “21 million pesos is nothing, but adjusted for today's inflation it would be 770 million pesos”, estimating that the market value of the land is 500,000
dollars. Axel Kicillof, governor of Buenos Aires.
Construction: Although in 2023 it was initially awarded for 331 million pesos to the firm Riorca S.A. with a 5% discount, real costs would already exceed 400 million pesos due to
price redeterminations.
The most alarming thing about the project is not only the excessive expense, but who was in charge of the execution. The company Riorca S.A., the main beneficiary of the tenders in Ensenada, has been singled out by the opposition for its links to the scandals of the Kirchner administration. In this regard, the mayor Sergio Pesado was categorical: “This work was awarded to Riorca, which is suspected of corruption, it is mentioned in the corruption notebooks. There's a vicious cycle all over there that we're investigating.”
While Secco seeks to consolidate this building as his “legacy” after managing the district since 2003, the reality in the neighborhoods of Ensenada is different.The opposition mayor, while acknowledging that “the building is barbaric”, insisted that “there are other priorities in Ensenada”, such as finishing the General Belgrano neighborhood and meeting postponed neighborhood needs. In a context of adjustment, the high political cost of the project becomes a symbol of the total disconnection of Kirchnerism with the efforts
