He Minister of Finance and Public Credit, Ricardo Bonillaafter being implicated in the corruption scandal surrounding the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD)he defended himself, assuring that he has no problem with being requested by the justice system.
“With my legal team, I respectfully and attentively follow the work of the Attorney General’s Office so that the country knows the truth and those truly responsible for the plundering of public resources. I calmly await my day and my opportunity before justice, because my actions defend themselves.“, said the head of the portfolio.
(Can read: Key facts to understand what is happening with the UNGRD corruption case).
It is worth mentioning that last Friday, Bonilla assured, in ‘Noticias Caracol’ that his work as minister lies in ask entities about how they are using resources when there are prioritized and viable projectsciting those of Cotorra, Saravena and Carmen de Bolívar.
UNGRD tank truck.
“The Minister of Finance does not fail projects, but he does have to ask the entities how they are executing them“, he said in dialogue with the newscast.
It is worth mentioning that the Prosecutor’s Office gave credibility to the allegations of the former director of UNGRD, Olmedo López and Sneyder Pinilla, another former official of the Unitagainst Minister Bonilla and his former advisor María Alejandra Benavides, for allegedly having directed the contracts of the aforementioned municipalities in which congressmen from the third commissions of the Senate and the House had undue intereststhey claim.
(Further: Petro accepted the resignation of the director of National Intelligence, implicated in the UNGRD case).
The Minister of Finance said that He personally asked about the contracts because they were filed at UNGRD since 2021 And, even though they were already in Phase 3, in the Budget discussions they found that they were not making progress.
“Congressmen do not ask for bribes as Olmedo and Sneyder asked. They simply do their job, which is to develop legislative activity and this is done in agreement with the Government in terms of the latter making the proposals for the bills and Congress approving or denying them.“, Bonilla said.
Hearing on the indictment of Olmedo López and Sneyder Pinilla.
Bonilla reaffirms his innocence
The head of the portfolio made clarifications of his alleged innocencementioning that his involvement in this corruption scandal is a misunderstanding.
“The mechanisms of public finances and their procedures in the Colombian State have been confused with illegal acts, which a rigorous investigation must distinguish. For now, I must tell the country that asking about a procedure is not ‘directing’, that executing a budget is not giving money, that meeting to review an official agenda is not agreeing on irregularities, that receiving congressmen demanding solutions for their regions is not buying votes.“, Bonilla said.
And I add: “The minister and his office have fulfilled their duties and that is why I asked to be heard, that all documents that clear up doubts be collected and that the officials be interviewed. When this is done, I am sure that the Prosecutor’s Office will come to one conclusion: the crimes were committed by others and the criminals are others.“.
BRIEFCASE
*With information from EL TIEMPO – ECONOMY
