The Ministry of Defense found 11 findings in the Military Justice

After the former head of the Military Criminal Justice Alejandro Ramírez pointed out that his retirement from office could have been due to the investigations and complaints that he had been carrying out inside the institution, according to a source from the Ministry of Defense, he only had administrative and managerial.

“He, as director of the Military Criminal Justice, does not have any investigative faculty, but administrative and managerial faculties. Those responsible for the investigation are the judges and prosecutors. In addition, the investigation of generals was also not within its competences, since, due to their number of cases, said investigation corresponds to the Supreme Court of Justice or to the Delegated Prosecutor of the Court, ”explained a source from the Ministry of Defense.

Regarding Ramírez’s removal from office, the Defense ministry made it clear that this decision came after being declared unsubstantiated.

“Being a position of free appointment and removal, he declared himself unsubstantiated. The head of each sector decides whether or not to declare subsistence, “said the same source.

However, EL HERALDO learned that prior to the retirement of the former head of the Military Justice, the Ministry of Defense detected 11 findings after the audit No. 15 that was carried out between January 24 and February 26 of this year.

In the report of said audit they cite the following findings: Weaknesses in the planning of transfers, in the legal planning of administrative acts of transfers, weaknesses in the policy of transfers, in the policy for making appointments, unnamed vacancies, lack of legal advisers, request for revocation by the Executive Directorate of Military Criminal Justice, weakness in the reliability of information, in the integrity and reliability of information, vacancies in dispatches and weaknesses in communication between the direction of Military Justice and the Ministry of Defence.

“Once the minister takes office, he begins to receive many complaints about transfers in Military Criminal Justice. It was found that the director was processing 141 transfers, of which the vast majority were not justified”Disclosed a government source.

The same source explained that a motivation is required to carry out the transfers, as a minimum legal requirement. And these motivations can be for reasons of service or force majeure, that people have requested.

However, according to a source in the Defense portfolio, the former head of Military Justice did not send the justifications for these transfers: “When the minister (Carlos Holmes Trujillo) came to office, Ramírez was given the opportunity to justify or make an assessment of the transfers. It’s not that I couldn’t do it, it’s that I did it well. He didn’t, he had all these months. So that power was taken away from him and the issue of transfers was passed on to the Secretary General of the Ministry of Defense. ”

In this sense, The report cites that the communication between the Executive Directorate of Military Justice (DEJPM) and the Ministry of Defense was “weak”. According to one of the findings that were detected in the audit, despite the fact that the CVs of the DEJPM legal advisory group were requested to be published on the page of the Presidency and the Defense portfolio, these were not sent.

These had been requested on three occasions: May, June and September 2019.

Further, It was also known after the audit that, of 273 judicial offices, in 59 there were vacancies that have not been filled.

Despite the findings, the Ministry of Defense reiterated that these were not the legal motivation to declare Ramírez unsubsistent. “That statement was given by the power that the minister has, as it is a position of free appointment,” the source emphasized.