Housing waiver case makes a difference with Van Rysselberghe 
www.latercera.com/ April 20, 2011
On Friday, he had handed in his resignation in hand, amid criticism of agreement between Serviu and Kodama. By Lorena Ferraro
On Monday night, Magdalena Matte had a key meeting with his family. Besides her husband, Senator Hernán Larraín, were his sons John of God, advisor of President Hernán Sebastián Piñera, and their three young daughters.
The meeting ended with the UDI senator front of a computer and Matte dictating a letter of resignation would give the President the following day.
was not, in any case, the first time that the minister put his resignation to. He had done last Friday at a meeting in the Palace with the president. According to government sources, Piñera's response was that it was time to address this issue.
latter, in line with the tacit agreement within the Executive, in the sense that any decision would follow the Comptroller's report on the disputed agreement for $ 17 billion between construction Serviu and Kodama.
However, for the minister, to Monday, things had worsened. For example: Comptroller had postponed this for another week its report. And she was not available for another week deal with threats of impeachment by the coalition, the investigation of the prosecution, where she had been the case, for possible fraud and raw Treasury official analysis on its future.
The questions pointed to that Matte was signed in mid-January, a free decree authorizing payment of $ 17 billion to Kodama. This was part of an agreement to stop a lawsuit for $ 41 billion, which the company claimed extra expenses in the construction of a corridor of Transantiago.
In February, alerted by the Secretary Andrés Iacobelli of the lack of records for payment itself Matte stopped the transaction.
addition, the familiar analysis of Monday had other data to see: that morning, asked if he supported the Minister of Housing, Piñera had only said they would be investigated thoroughly.
Hours earlier, the president's political committee had made a critical diagnosis of case management.
Another signal from the Palace was hard when the Interior Minister said that Monday against former legal adviser to Housing Matte, Alvaro Baeza, saying he may have committed acts "against the law."
In this scenario, early yesterday, the minister called for breakfast with Piñera with whom he was alone for hours. "I want to go a step further and assume the political responsibility that falls to me as minister. I know that this attitude is not common in Chilean public life," said the letter he delivered yesterday morning Piñera. Several
read in this an attempt to make a difference with the sharp controversy over the former mayor of Concepción, Jacqueline van Rysselberghe, who, despite the split in the Alliance and a complex scenario for the government's allegations against him-is remained in office for several weeks.
This idea had mentioned it last Friday Pinera, to resign. And he reiterated at a meeting on Monday with deputies, saying he would not repeat that level of complication to the Executive and know "to step aside."
Matte's decision was valued at the ruling party and the Coalition. "The country is aware that we are witnessing an honest minister," said former President Ricardo Lagos.
Matte After breakfast with Piñera, the son of the minister and advisor to the President, Hernán, asked several secretaries of state with his mother in the press conference where formalize his resignation around noon. They also came personeros UDI and RN.
And minutes before 17.00, Matte walked the five blocks from Housing in La Moneda for the change of command ceremony, accompanied by her husband and many community leaders, with banners in support. At the event, Piñera thanked his "personal commitment and nobility."
The President appointed the mayor of the O'Higgins Region, Rodrigo Pérez Mackenna, succeeding Matte. Although his name was being analyzed from the weekend in the executive, opened a front for the UDI stress.
Pinera's letter: "Even if you lose personally, I avoid a political conflict"
"Things have not been easy," admits Magdalena Matte in the letter delivered yesterday to the President. With his words, not If only accounts Kodama. Also remember the interpellation against him and "complex issues affecting the rebuilding process in the Eighth Region," alluding to the controversy he had with the former mayor Jacqueline van Rysselberghe.
"In all these episodes, you know I've acted with a single line: the truth and transparency. Whatever it takes and whatever the consequences and costs," says Matte.
Thus, upon Kodama said, "I recognized a procedural error" which ordered not to pay the $ 17 billion while the company "does not clarify and review procedures." She also emphasized that gave the background to Comptroller and the prosecution.
"Although seemingly lost in (...) Personally I avoid an unnecessary political conflict," says the former minister, adding that "I have the conviction, Mr. President, that I did everything right that a person would face a situation like that I had to face. " So, thanks to Piñera's "honor" of having been in office.
Keys
announced resignation of Van Rysselberghe Phantom
The outbreak of the Palace lit the alarm at the possibility of reissuing the costs of the case Van Rysselberghe. At that time, the government chose to keep the Intendant in charge and the controversy eventually monopolize the agenda and tarnish the announcement of several social projects. The risk of paralysis of Minvu was also in the evaluations and Matte's own decision not to repeat the experience of his colleague and the possibility that the opposition filed a constitutional accusation against him. UDI
adds another defeat
With the appointment of Rodrigo Pérez Mackenna to replace Magdalena Matte, the UDI lost a piece in the cabinet. The new minister is close to Senator Andrew Chadwick, but no military in the ranks of trade unionists. Not only that, Piñera only reported to the board headed by Juan Antonio Coloma elect a new secretary of state and appointment-sealed during the weekend, aimed to neutralize the burgeoning demand of the party by attempting to install in the cabinet to Pablo Longueira.
The delay that precipitated the resignation
On Friday in La Moneda fixed for mid-week day "D" of the case Kodama. The government expected the delivery of the preliminary report of the Comptroller, whose decision, according to reports, determines that the amount determined as Kodama compensation exceeds $ 7 billion the correct calculation, in addition to questioning the Serviu officials and former adviser Matte Alvaro Baeza. On Monday, however, warned the delay of the text, which precipitated the departure of Secretary of State to try to defuse the controversy.
The "new way of governing"
Matte Magdalena's resignation takes shape amid the search for a new story for the government Piñera.
After formal complaints by printing a distinctive character on the first administration of center and when the output of Jacqueline van Rysselberghe was a blow to efficiency label that the government has tried to print to their management, the resignation of Secretary of State criticism revived opposition to the "new way of governing."
The steps are
in the government are aware that Matte's resignation does not close the debate. The case is being investigated in two ways: the Comptroller and the Attorney General.
The review body, as anticipated The Third Sunday-enlists a hard question to compensation, establishing a surcharge on the agreement in principle was endorsed by Matte, but then it stopped. The document will be key to the inquiry that follows the prosecutor for possible fraud to the Treasury.
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