The Comptroller General of the Republic issued a ruling with fiscal responsibility for $87,027 million against the Populated Centers Temporary Uniongiven the irregularities that occurred in the execution of contribution contract 1043 of 2020, concluded with the Single Fund for Information and Communications Technologies of the ICT Ministry, to install internet in remote rural areas of the country, a fact that cost it charge to former minister Karen Abudinen.
(Read: How much money has been recovered after the Centros Poblados scandal?).
For the Comptroller’s Office, It was ineffective, inefficient and inopportune fiscal management, since the total delivery of equipment for the completion of the Digital Centers project, which sought to bring free internet to rural areas of 16 departments of the country, was not completed.
The decision was adopted after the Comptroller’s Office carried out a comprehensive assessment of the information collected within the framework of the Fiscal responsibility process No. 80011-2021-39465, in which it was finally determined to rule responsibly against the firms that formed the Populated Centers Temporary Union 2020 and its legal representative.
(See: Populated Centers: sanctions imposed on former administrators).
The non-compliance “led to the early termination of the contract that implied the return of public resources by virtue of the obligation acquired, added to the presentation of a false bank guarantee by the consortium, without which the contract would not have started and, therefore Therefore, the advance resources ($70,000 million) would not have been disbursed”, highlighted the control entity.
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Those involved
In addition to the responsibility of the Centros Poblados consortiumthe Comptroller’s Office determined that there was an omission in the delivery of the equipment by the respective supplier company, and for this reason it also declared the legal representative of the distribution company responsible for tax purposes..
Additionally, the Comptroller’s Office ruled fiscal liability against the members of the intervening consortium every time they approved payment orders without comprehensive verification of the documents that supported them, that is, without compliance with the agreed conditions for access to said resources, that is, all the equipment necessary to fulfill the project.
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Likewise, the intervening consortium ignored requesting an extraordinary meeting of the fiduciary committee so that the expenditure authorizer could have avoided the transfer of resources due to the imminent non-compliance with the execution schedule of contract 1043 due to lack of availability of the equipment.
In relation to the officials of the Single Fund for Information and Communications Technologies, after the comprehensive assessment of the evidence and defense arguments, it was ruled without fiscal responsibility for the following reasons:
In the case of Mrs. Adriana Meza, In her capacity as delegated legal representative of FUNTIC, it was proven that it was only until May 20, 2021 that she was made aware of the contractor’s non-compliance situation, hence she did not have factual grounds that would allow her to advance the actions. stipulated in the contribution contract to order the Temporary Union to comply with its obligations or request the suspension of the transfer of resources or the return of the money for the advance payment.
As for the lady Sandra Orjuela, In her capacity as deputy director of Contractual Management of the ICT Ministry, it was proven that she carried out all the procedures that were functionally and legally required for the approval of the bank guarantees, added to the fact that, as was accredited before the Criminal Jurisdiction, it was induced in error by the members of the Populated Centers Temporary Union 2020.
Regarding Mr. Camilo Alberto Jiménez Santofimioas supervisor of the contract, it was proven that he did not intervene either directly or indirectly in the approval of the payment orders, since said obligation fell solely and exclusively on the auditor.
Likewise, the insurers were separated and archived because they obeyed global management policies of the officials on which a ruling was made without fiscal responsibility.
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