Attorney’s Office monitors contracts in San Andrés after hurricane Iota – Investigation – Justice

Contracts for more than 191,000 million pesos are under the scrutiny of the Attorney General’s Office, which began a surveillance of more than 5,000 contracts signed in 2020 by the Governors of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina with entities of the national and territorial order .

“More serious than hurricanes ETA and Iota is the hurricane of corruption in San Andrés,” the entity’s chief, Fernando Carrillo Flórez, declared about the surveillance of the Attorney General’s Office.

(Also read: Prosecutor’s Office will request accounts for the reconstruction of San Andrés after Iota)

And it is that only since November 17, after the passage of hurricane Iota, 318 contracts have been signed in the archipelago, for $ 7,035 million, of which only 6 add up to $ 2,315 million and correspond to works or services not directly associated with the recovery, reconstruction and normalization of the archipelago. Among those contracts is one for Christmas lighting, trainings for traffic officers and participation in basketball tournaments.

Due to these alleged irregularities, the control body opened disciplinary proceedings and seeks to establish, as part of a preventive action, the existence of an alleged parallel payroll, with about 1,500 contractors, including people who do not even reside in the archipelago.

In particular, the Public Ministry focused surveillance and monitoring on 12 contracts signed with 10 contractors, for more than $ 16.3 billion.

The targeted contracts were signed with Carlos Rafael Benet González, the Circunvalar Consortium, Recuperaciones Naranjo Recycling SAS, Sweet Food Association, Colombian Basketball Federation, Society Protection Technics Colombia Ltda., Cartagena de Indias International Film Festival Corporation, Society Servies General SAS, Consorcio Alcantarillado Avenida Newball, and Aqua SAI SAS

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As reported by the Attorney General, since 2008 these firms They have executed 44 contracts with territorial entities, worth more than $ 56,639 million, of which 80 percent were awarded by the archipelago’s government.

Between January and March, the hiring with them exceeded $ 112,000 million, and from April to December so far, the hiring was almost $ 79 billion.

The control body will request information from entities such as ICBF, ICA and SENA, among others.

The questioned lighting contract signed after the hurricane

For a contract for Christmas lights, the Attorney General’s Office opened a preliminary inquiry against the governor in charge of the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina, Alen Jay Stephens (2020), the General Secretaries (e), Martha Moreno; of Finance, Liza Hayes, and of Planning, Bartolomé Taylor. The investigation is for alleged irregularities in the hiring of the rental, transportation, installation, operation and assembly of the island’s Christmas lighting services, worth $ 1,550 million.

The control body investigates whether the officials published in a timely manner on the Secop website the previous studies, the initiation act and the compliance policy of the contract signed with the Public Services Company of Sabaneta ESP

Also inquires if the agreement’s civil liability policy was acquired six days after the initiation act was signed, and if the servers would have excluded the public energy companies of the archipelago -EMDESAI, EDDAS and SOPESA-, which would be able to execute the Christmas lighting at a lower cost.

Suspicions about contracts signed to attend covid-19

On the other hand, the Public Ministry opened a disciplinary investigation against the mayor of Providencia and Santa Catalina, Jorge Norberto Gary Hooker, and the Secretary of Social and Community Development, Ana Mercedes Newball Taylor, for alleged cost overruns in contract 1163 of 2020, signed with Fumigaciones Pest Control Providencia, days before the emergency caused by Hurricane Iota. That contract was for the disinfection of public buildings and vehicles of the mayor’s office, worth $ 200 million.

Likewise, the department’s Secretary of Health, Julián Roberto David Robinson, is being investigated for alleged irregularities in two contracts, whose objectives were aimed at acquiring personal protection elements for the medical staff of the departmental hospital, for $ 360’707.648.

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The Public Ministry seeks to determine the state in which the supplies arrived, since the hospital operator returned 5,500 masks that apparently They would not be in adequate conditions to protect the lives of workers and patients.