In the midst of a climate of growing citizen insecurity, the Comptroller General of the Republic has established that serious irregularities were committed in the acquisition of body cameras (bodycams) and massive charging devices (dockers) that were intended for police officers who provide services in police stations within the framework of the Safe Neighborhood program.
Those responsible are seven former officials and former servants of the Perú Seguro 2025 Execution Unit of the Ministry of the Interior who endorsed improper and unsubstantiated deadline extensions, non-application of penalties and fractional contracts that benefited the supplier, causing economic damage of S/574,830.
According to the entity, a total of 216 bodycams and 3 dockers were purchased for the sum of S/ 3’100,002.30 from a private supplier, which did not deliver on the established date.
“From the review of the documents linked to said contract, it was noted that the executive director, the head of administration, the head of legal counsel, the head of the procurement area, a procurement specialist, the coordinator of component I and an analyst of Component 1 of the Perú Seguro 2025 Program participated in the management and issuance of amendment No. 3, which gave an additional period of 50 calendar days to complete deliverable No. 3, consisting of the transfer, installation and commissioning of the bodycams and dockers,” indicates the Comptroller’s audit report.
The entity, however, specified that said granting of a deadline was not appropriate “because the request was submitted three days after the expiration of the deadline established in the contract, and was made without the respective support since the facts cited by the contractor lacked veracity.”
“In this way, these events failed to comply with the provisions of the special conditions of the contract on the application of daily penalties, as well as the established deadlines and other internal regulations. The auditors determined that an undue extension of the contractual term was approved and the penalty incurred for the unjustified delay in the delivery of benefits was not applied, freeing the contractor from the application of a penalty of S/ 310,000.23 to the detriment of the Ministry of the Interior,” the document adds.
Fractional purchases
According to the Comptroller’s Office, it was also evident that the former officials – executive director, head of the administration office and the person responsible for procurement of Perú Seguro 2025 – participated in the authorization, issuance and execution of eight service orders in a fractional manner to carry out the installation services of network points, electrical energy points and shelves in 75 police stations of the National Police of Peru.
This was despite the fact that said works and/or activities were part of the obligations of the bodycam contractor and that this was fully known to the aforementioned officials and servants. In this case, the disbursement was S/ 264,830 to the detriment of the Ministry of the Interior.
By virtue of all this, the control commission established the alleged civil liability of seven officials and servants of Perú Seguro 2025, of which five also have administrative responsibility.
Likewise, it was recommended that the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Ministry of the Interior initiate civil actions against the officials and servants involved in the events.
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