The mayor of Candelaría is captured for alleged hiring irregularities

Jorge Eliecer Ramírez Mosquera, mayor of Candelaría, some members of his cabinet and a couple of contractors were captured by the Prosecutor’s Office for alleged hiring irregularities.

According to the investigating body, the complaints filed by citizens and social leaders allowed to uncover several illegal acts in which officials and contractors in charge of planning and executing projects such as road maintenance and the construction of soccer fields would have incurred.

The others captured were identified as Óscar Darío Posso Céspedes, formulator of projects and monitoring of the hiring of the Secretary of Education, Abraham Reyes Andrade, official of the Ethnicity Office, Jhonatan Ortiz Libreros, contractor Office of Infrastructure, José Ulises Asprilla Cárdenas and Jimmy Paz Castillo, contractors.

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The arrest warrant against Wilson Suárez Betancourt, Secretary of Infrastructure, was not effective due to the escape of the accused.

The Prosecutor’s Office will present the captured before a guarantee control judge for the crimes of aggravated conspiracy to commit a crime, undue interest in the conclusion of contracts, contract without legal requirements, falsehood in public document and falsehood in private document.

Investigations indicate that Candelaría Mayor’s Office officials have worked with individuals to gain personal gain and appropriate the municipality’s money.

The first contract investigated, whose value amounted to 229 million pesos, signed in November 2019, contemplated the construction of three soccer fields with batteries of bathrooms and bleachers, in the Buchitolo, Arenal and Poblado Campestre townships. However, the works were never completed, but the Municipal Administration granted more resources and terms to the contractor.

The second contract sought the maintenance of tertiary roads. A month was agreed for its completion, but there is enough evidence to indicate that this process was directed to the same contractor.

In both cases, the public officials in charge of the pre-contractual and execution stages allegedly favored Mr. José Ulises Asprilla Cárdenas to keep the two mentioned contracts.

Apparently, they adjusted the existing hiring rules to benefit him, forged signatures and documents, engaged in impersonations, and did not exercise control or supervision.

The inconsistencies would have reached the point of making an alternative to the contract for the soccer fields, when the execution period had ended.

For his part, Mayor Ramírez stated, through a statement, that “we cannot anticipate the events, we are willing to continue collaborating with justice and not torpedoing the actions they carry out, we know that we have acted well and we hope that the justice works in the best way, because we believe in it “.

Finally, the Prosecutor’s Office pointed out that the complaints filed by the Candelaria social leaders, Iván Giraldo Fúquene and Jhonatan Borja Pérez, who were assassinated on January 30, 2020, were corroborated. These people warned about the alleged hiring irregularities in the Mayor’s Office.

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