The official makes clear serious flaws of different tenor in the departmental administration, in which, apparently, people other than the governor are in charge.
On May 7, 2024, before the governor of Cauca, Jorge Octavio Guzmán, the Secretary of Departmental Health, Mario Jair Campo Trochez, presented a reasoned and irrevocable resignation.
The official, who took office on January 1, 2024, resigns in an extensive letter that begins by presenting, in his opinion, the achievements achieved during his time at the Cauca Health Secretariat, after which he tells his boss , the governor, what are the reasons for his resignation. In subtitle he says: “Some inconveniences within the Government.”
Campo Trochez refers, first of all, to the decision taken last February to temporarily and preventively close the headquarters of the Ministry of Health, without a new site having been sought to date, which reveals a lack of planning. and organization of regional administration.
“When determining the temporary and preventive closure of the Ministry of Health, there is no headquarters that allows staff to work and control the actions. For two months as Secretary of Health, I have been wandering around the Government without having a suitable place to serve internal and external staff. There is no solution to the requests and the problem is accentuated every day,” he says.
He adds that as Secretary of Health he was not taken into account “at all, in the appointment of the managers of the State’s social enterprises, entrusting other people with the activities of a Secretary of Health, which denotes a lack of confidence in the exercise of office.”
The resigning Secretary points out that in the Legal Office of the Department, multiple audit information requirements are generated from the Ministry of Finance, to the Ministry of Health, ignoring the competence and advances already agreed upon and approved with the same external personnel that evaluates them. That is to say, he adds, “it feels as if people within the Government are attacking processes that have already been evaluated and approved efficiently.”
He says that, “since there is too much flow of centralized contracting (in the Government) it has not allowed us to generate trust in leaders and leaders who have come to me, without having a solution as Secretary of Health, who to date has neither legal nor hired driver of my trust. By not having autonomy, I am losing credibility by not being able to resolve staff requirements in a timely manner.”
He also maintains that decree 0502-05-2024 was issued from the governor’s office by which an order was carried out on the Secretariat’s office floor, without taking into account the Secretary of Health. “Totally ignoring my competence as head of the Health portfolio. Which shows that there is no trust even in the appointment of the personnel within the Secretariat under my charge.”
Likewise, “through decree 0477-04-24, the specific manual of functions, requirements and labor competencies of the entity is added and partially modified, without even taking into account the concept of the Secretary of Health, in such a delicate issue that requires , for obvious reasons, the knowledge of the Secretary of Health and profiles are commissioned, modified and added without the prior knowledge of the secretary, who, out of minimal respect, must know the list of positions of his dependency.
The official continues in his extensive memorial of grievances: “to complete the absence of trust and credibility in a “Secretary of Health”, decree 0492-04-24 is issued by which a commission is granted to perform a freely appointed job. and removal of an official from the Ministry of Health, without consulting that official not even his immediate boss and, what is more worrying, the Secretary of Health, who for obvious reasons and responsibility must be aware of all personnel movements to office. This generates, in addition to going through all the filters to the Secretary of Health, an inconvenience, because that official who was doing a good job is not replaced, generating chaos with that determination without consultation.
Finally, Campos Trochez notes that “the conditions of the statement of reasons do not allow me to continue in my position, since there is no evidence of trust or autonomy in the development of my duties, which is why I have decided to make the decision to resign as of the 14th.” May of this year, irrevocably to my position as Secretary of Health of the Department of Cauca.”
Complaint to the Attorney General’s Office
A complaint submitted anonymously to the Attorney General’s Office reached the newspaper La Campana, in which it says that for more than two months the Departmental Health Secretariat was closed by the Ministry of Labor, due to poor working and safety conditions. for the personnel who worked in the building.
That the officials were assigned to work at home, while the Government of Cauca found a site that met the safety and working conditions for all the staff of the Ministry of Health.
After more than two months, those in charge of executing the contract for the transfer to a new headquarters, the purchase of security and labor elements, have not responded. There is no new headquarters, no clear dates for the transfer have been established. Due to the above, the intervention of the Attorney General’s Office is requested so that the people in charge present a schedule with clear times for the transfer of headquarters, the complaint states.
Additionally, officials from that departmental agency allege workplace harassment, a situation that they have reported to the Coexistence Committee, without the Committee being activated to date.
A donut rules over the governor
For some time now, the newspaper La Campana has received serious comments from officials of the departmental administration, indicating that a kind of sanhedrin has been created in the Government, made up of inexperienced young women, who have up to two contracts, each for six million, what would be fractionation, commanded by the governor’s partner. Employees who asked not to reveal their names claim that this “little donut” decides government affairs, hiring, changes, transfers, appointments, etc.
The resignation of the Secretary of Health, Mario Jair Campo Trochez, corroborates what was told to this media outlet. It is not, then, a lack of trust in him, but abuse by certain people in the Government, who take on powers and go over office secretaries and other officials, leaving them without autonomy and without tools to carry out adequate work in favor of him. of the Department, which must be investigated by the control agencies.
