The scandal of corruption of the National Risk Management Unit (UNGRD) is at the center of the public agenda. The case has become even more relevant after the former advisor to the Ministry of Finance, María Alejandra Benavides, revealed new details about the alleged participation of some senior government officials.
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The Investigative Unit of ‘Noticias Caracol’ had access to the audios of the statement made by Benavides before the Prosecutor’s Office, in which it is mentioned that the Minister of Finance, Ricardo Bonilla; The presidential advisor, Jaime Ramírez Cobo, and the then Minister of the Interior, Luis Fernando Velasco, would have made an agreement to buy congressmen through contracts with the UNGRD for 92,000 million pesos.
The alleged express operation would have taken place in December 2023 and would have as its objective promote the approval of international credits for the Nation which totaled a little more than 1,000 million dollars. According to the testimony, a key date in that process was the 6th of that same month.
“Minister Velasco calls me on my cell phone. He tells me: ‘María Alejandra, how are the issues going?’. And I say: ‘What is Minister Velasco doing calling me?’. I told him: ‘Minister, I’m waiting for the instruction from Minister Bonilla’. And this brings me to a day that is key. I want you to really highlight it because for me it is the most important day of this. the former official noted in her statement.
Benavides explained that the Government needed the approval of the Interparliamentary Commission on Public Credit. However, that December 6, Only one of the seven credits that sought the approval of legislators was approved.
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(See: Minhacienda, badly off in corruption case in the UNGRD after testimony of former advisor)
To obtain approval of the remaining credits, a last-minute meeting was called at the Ministry of Finance in which the three officials mentioned above and in which the alleged agreement would have been concluded.
“Prosecutor, in that meeting it was agreed that the person who has to start moving with the Risk Management Unit is Minister Velasco, when he was minister. I remember that I sat in those meetings, I did not participate, I was there because the minister asked me to, but I did not participate. I didn’t want to either. But Bonilla and Velasco spoke. And Minister Bonilla told him: ‘You have to help me, you have to do something too.’ Minister Velasco agreed. Jaime Ramírez Cobo, as liaison of the presidency, and as the highest liaison with respect to all the other liaisons of the National Government, also had to intervene before the Unit”he highlighted.
After this Resolution 3202 of December 11, 2023 would have been issuedwith which resources were transferred to the UNGRD for 700,000 million pesos. From this amount, according to Sneyder Pinilla, former deputy director of the entity, 92,000 million in contracts would come out.
Benavides’ version would ratify what was previously stated by former Unidad officials: Olmedo López and Sneyder Pinillawho are also involved in the case.
Following the statements of the former Minhacienda advisor, the head of this portfolio, Ricardo Bonilla, issued a statement on his X account, in which he refers to the issue. The minister indicated that he respects the work that the Prosecutor’s Office has been doing to clarify what happened in this case and hopes to demonstrate that “I may eventually make mistakes, but not crimes.”
(More news: Prosecutor’s Office will charge former presidential advisor for alleged corruption case)
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