Prosecutor’s Office suspends the governor of Chocó for months and other investigations for corruption are being carried out- ELESPECTADOR.COM

The measure will be for three months, while Ariel Palacios Calderón is being investigated for a $ 2,000 million contract, which caught the attention of the entity for its amount. There are 14 other governors investigated.

In the midst of the investigations that the Office of the Attorney General has begun to put the magnifying glass on contracts throughout the country, in the context of the crisis caused by COVID-19, the Public Ministry suspended the Governor of Chocó, Ariel Palacios Calderón. The measure is scheduled to last three months, while the investigations are underway for a contract of $ 2,000 million that caught the attention of the entity for its amount.

(In context: Corruption, the pandemic in COVID-19 that seeks to stop in time)

According to the first details of this case, the millionaire business was signed with the Chocó Saludable Foundation, where the contractor had to carry out activities related to educational cycles, in two-hour sessions, on topics such as: cleaning, disinfection, animal handling, chronic diseases, self-care and mental health, breastfeeding, sexuality, pregnant, respiratory hygiene at work, prevention of acute respiratory diseases and tuberculosis, all focused on the coronavirus.

“The Office of the Attorney General warned of an alleged ignorance of the principles of state contracting, taking into account that most of the activities to be carried out under the contract are not imperative nor could they be considered as a significant contribution to the mitigation of the pandemic by the covid-19, especially if one takes into account that there are urgent and priority needs such as the payment of wages, and the provision of biosafety elements for medical and nursing personnel who would have to attend to people who are infected with the coronavirus ” , the ministry said through a press release.

This control entity has monitored 5,500 contracts, finding 40 irregularities of different kinds, the most worrying: irregularities in contracting and cost overruns. Within these investigations, the governor of Arauc, Facundo Castillo, was also suspended for signing two millionaire contracts. One, for example, corresponds to the realization of fairs and parties for a cost of $ 570 million pesos. The other called the attention of the Attorney General’s Office, since its amount is $ 470 million pesos, for the purchase of cans of tuna; Each can cost this department $ 20,000 pesos.

(Read also: Launch platform for the oversight of contracting by Covid-19)

Faced with the case, the Prosecutor General’s Office announced that next week the charges will be brought forward and the insurance measure will be ordered for those involved in fraudulent contracts within the framework of the attention to the COVID-19 pandemic. The investigating entity is already carrying out 38 cases that are in the investigation stage against officials in 41 municipalities of the departments such as Atlántico, Valle, Quindío and Santander.

“We have two preliminary inquiries open to two entities of the national order: the National Planning Department and Finagro (…) There is a constitutional measure with an open preliminary notice that is the Minister of Agriculture.” Apart from the Minister of Agriculture Rodolfo Enrique Zea, the investigating entity announced that it had five open processes in the Prosecutors Unit before the Supreme Court of Justice of heads of other portfolios.

For its part, the Comptroller evidenced alleged cost overruns of approximately $ 1,269 million pesos in a contract by the National Navy for the acquisition of N-95 masks. Likewise, it made the decision to initiate 27 preliminary investigations in the governorates of Valle del Cauca, Cesar, Casanare, Tolima, Nariño, Guaviare and Vichada; The contracts made by the Bogotá Health Secretariat and the Medellín Education Secretariat will also be investigated.

The three entities explained that they have held 16 sessions of technical tables, thanks to their joint work in 13 contracts -which represent $ 17,000 million pesos of the treasury- in which the value has been decreased or ended unilaterally. “They are $ 17,000 million that have not been lost,” said Attorney General Francisco Barbosa.

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